Price of Freedom
by emmadactryl
Summary: Set after my last fic Death's Paw. Alpha Force are on another mission, but this time they're working alongside MI6 and ASIS. In the remote Australian bush, anything could happen... Note: Each chapter is from a different character's POV. COMPLETED.
1. Very Important Guests

**AMBER**

As soon as we walked into Harry's office, I knew something was up. He sat behind his desk, grinning like a clown, hands nervously tapping the folder on the desk in front of him. We- the Famous Five as various officers had so affectionately dubbed us- sat down in the assorted chairs scattered about and waited for Harry to speak. When he finally did, it wasn't exactly exciting, nail-biting, edge-of-yer-seat stuff.

'How have you all been?' Harry smiled politely, switching from freaking clown to concerned middle-aged guy, neither of which he actually was.

'Ah...' Li, normally bright-eyed and energetic, was sitting slumped in her chair. She's not a real morning person and I can't exactly blame her.

'You dragged us all the way down here to ask us how we are?' Typical Hex- straight to the point, cut-the-crap, tell us what we need to know and move on. A usual response to a standard Hex comment is offence and perhaps a bit of embarrassment, depending on the comment and location. Harry... Well he was either stone-deaf or had really thick skin.

'Good. Good.' Beaming at us, Harry was silent for a few seconds. I stared at him, trying to read his mind. What did our boss have in store for us? A pay rise? More paperwork? It struck me then that this impromptu meeting was most likely so that Harry could give us another mission. He'd never have called us in to talk to him otherwise.

I was both excited and utterly terrified at the prospect of going undercover again. Excitement because anything beat mooching around the MI5 office with nothing to do other than drink caffeine and do paperwork. Terror because, well, we would be, no doubt, in danger and putting our lives on the line. I also couldn't quite get past our last- and first for that matter- mission with MI5. Occasionally I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, reliving every moment back in the warehouse when-

But I digress.

Harry wasn't put off by our apparent lack of enthusiasm. He flipped open a laptop and waited for it to wake up, all the time still smiling at us. Something weird was going on.

The door to Harry's office opened and Maggie Walker edged in nervously. She was a tiny little thing, built like a China doll. It amazed me greatly that she worked with the Secret Service, but rumour had it that she was a black belt in Karate and had, on a previous mission, landed three huge security guards in intensive care.

I regarded Maggie curiously as she fidgeted by the door.

Harry didn't seem to have noticed Maggie waiting patiently; he was staring at the laptop in frustration. 'This is one of those new, trial models, isn't it,' he muttered. I could almost see Hex's ears perk up. The way he leaned forward suddenly before leaping from his chair and darting around to stand next to Harry reminded me of one of my dogs I had back in Boston, years and years ago. I was youngish, nine or ten, and Bella Lou was my little Jack Russell. She would go berserk whenever she caught wind of a squirrel, but right before she would race off after it, she would lean towards it, ears so erect they were just about touching above her head. Bella was also stubborn, pig-headed and could be incredibly annoying at times- yet more similarities.

'Harry?' Maggie quavered.

Harry looked up sharply. 'Maggie! What can I do for you?'

'Your appointment arrived. They're waiting outside. Do you want them to come in now or not?' Maggie was holding a clipboard and for the first time I realised: she was Tanya's replacement. Yet more reminders of our last mission. I wondered whether I would ever be able to get totally away from it.

After regarding the five of us- me, gazing in wonder at an insect buzzing lazily around; Hex, fiddling with the laptop with an expression of pure joy on his face; Li, still sort of lying on the chair, eyes at half mast; Paulo, eyes completely closed and head titled slightly back; Alex, the only one looking reasonably alert, perched on a chair- Harry nodded at Maggie and she disappeared to let the "appointment", whoever that was, know that they could come in.

Unlady-like as it was, I couldn't help but crane my neck around to peer with fascination at Harry's mysterious "appointment". Li and Paulo also woke up with a start and blinked curiously at our two new arrivals. They sauntered past us and addressed Harry. Apparently we didn't exist.

'I'll get straight to business,' one man said. He was dressed in a spiffy blue suit, tie and black lace up shoes.

'Ah.' Harry, who was not dressed in a spiffy suit, sounded a bit nervous. 'I haven't exactly explained anything to them yet. Maybe it's best if you two do the talking?'

The second man frowned. 'We have a deadline. This mission is of the utmost importance. You said that your officers would be capable of undertaking this task, yet you haven't even _informed_ them of it?'

'I was about to,' Harry said, sounding bitter. 'But you guys showed up.'

For the first time, the two guys seemed to realise they had company. They blinked at Hex, still completely absorbed in the laptop and slowly turned around. I had to bite down hard on my lip to stop giggling like a maniac. It was just like a movie scene, where the bad guys suddenly realise they're being watched. Our two guests did the turn perfectly. Slowly and with trepidation, they did a 180 and faced the four of us, waiting patiently in our chairs.

'Hiya!' Li exclaimed brightly. They actually jumped a bit.

'Hello,' the first one answered coolly. He half turned and said to Harry, 'These are the "fantastic and completely capable officers"?'

'In the flesh,' Harry nodded. 'Amber, Li, Alex and Paulo.' He pointed at each of us before patting Hex on the shoulder and adding, 'And Hex.'

Man number two cleared his throat and smiled tightly. 'Can you five leave us alone for a moment.' It was a statement, not a question and we immediately walked out of the room, but not before we heard a gasped 'Are you _insane_?'

Paulo shut the door behind him and we faced each other outside Harry's office.

'Wonder what that was all about?' Alex finally said.

'Hmmm.' Li tapped a finger on her bottom lip. We stared at her expectantly.

When she didn't say anything else, Paulo asked, 'What?'

'Huh?' Shaking her head slightly, Li dragged her gaze away from the utterly fascinating ketchup stain on the floor and looked at Paulo. 'That's all.' He just sighed.

I, for one, was utterly disgusted at how we had been cast out like that. Taking decisive action, I sidled up to the office door and pressed my ear to it.

'How old are they? 21? 22? This is a huge operation. ASIS have been working on it for months. I doubt they'll want a bunch of rookies bumbling around.' I couldn't tell whether it was Mr Snazzy Suit or his companion; they'd both sounded the same: annoyed and pompous.

'I understand the position you're both in,' Harry said patiently, 'but believe me when I say that these guys know what they're doing.'

'One mission! They've been on one mission. And need I remind you how that almost ended.' Ouch. I winced involuntarily, but then felt a surge of anger. Who the hell did these two think they were?

'MI6 didn't seem to care two weeks ago when I was approached about helping out.' My eyes bounced out of their sockets and my jaw dropped. MI6? Holy crud. And they were talking about some big mission. With the Australian secret service. And they'd asked Harry if he had any officers that could help out. And he'd recommended us. Crap.

'What's going on?' Hex whispered in my ear. I whacked his shoulder and pushed him away, putting a finger to my lips as I did so. He caught on quick but, instead of backing off, found another section of door and leant in to listen as well.

'I don't see why you can't give them a shot,' Harry said, sounding on the verge of exasperation. 'You were fine with it until you knew their ages.' There was a pause and then, 'I've got files as long as my arm on them. They haven't just turned up on our doorstep with no experience.'

I could imagine the scene: Harry, rustling in his drawer, finding our files. He'd hand them over to the two MI6 guys. They'd be sceptical at first, then, as they read through them, they'd actually realise that we all knew what we were doing.

'Well,' one of them said eventually. 'That is rather impressive, but I'm still not 100 sure.'

'Trust me,' Harry said. I could hear the smile. 'You'll have some officers in there too, right? And ASIS will as well. Give them a chance.'

There was a pause and finally, almost grudgingly, one of the men sighed, 'I guess they won't do any harm...'

Hex and I whirled around and grinned triumphantly at Li, Alex and Paulo. They immediately looked suspicious.

'What?' Alex asked, frowning slightly.

'We've got another mission,' I trilled quietly. Li grinned and grabbed my hands, spinning me around. Unfortunately, just at that rather immature moment, our two Very Important Guests pulled the door open. Four eyebrows shot upwards and Harry gave a nervous chuckle. We stopped our little celebration and formed a ragged line in the corridor. The eyebrows came back down, but frown lines appeared. Oops. They'd obviously guessed what we were so happy about. And how we'd found out about it.

'That shows initiative, right?' Harry suggested.

The two men grunted and walked past us, leaving Harry shaking his head and grimacing.

'Here I am, trying to convince them that you guys are mature and responsible,' he said, 'when you're eavesdropping on our conversation and then dancing in the hallway.' He sighed, ducking his head so we wouldn't see his smile. 'Real mature.'


	2. All Is Revealed

**ALEX**

Life was fairly normal for the next week; apart from several little chats in Harry's office, everything went as per usual. It was a bit of a let-down, actually. Here we were, just given the exciting news that we had the opportunity to help out MI6 in a huge mission, and nothing happens. It was a tad disappointing.

Then, one morning, Harry summoned us to his office.

'Good morning!' he warbled as we entered and sat down. 'I have some news.'

'Really?' Amber leaned forward in her seat. 'What?'

'First,' Harry began, settling back in his chair. We were going to be here a while. 'First of all I need to give you a bit more information on what you'll actually be doing.

'ASIS had a few reports from Immigration that a couple of clever cookies had been smuggling refugees in from various countries. Immigration were a bit concerned since they'd had reports of people being smuggled in, but then no more trace of them could be found. It seemed odd and they called in ASIS, worried that the smugglers were planning something big.'

'Like a mass attack?' I put in before Harry could go on. He nodded slowly.

'Something like that. Anyway, they did a bit of digging and uncovered a sort of secret organisation, operating in remote bushland near the Queensland, Northern Territory border. A lot of the buildings are underground so it hasn't aroused suspicion.

'ASIS found all this out, but it didn't lead them anywhere. They kept as close and eye as possible on the base but no one went in or out.'

'Couldn't they send someone in undercover?' asked Li.

'They had a couple of contacts, but also a couple of complications. The majority of officers working in ASIS are Australian. They're trying to encourage Australian citizens from other nationalities to join, but it's a bit of a slow process. There were also strong links to here.'

'What, like, England here?'

'Yeah. So ASIS called in MI6 and they did some more digging. Apparently this secret society thingo gets its security guys from another secret organisation that operates somewhere up north. The guards are trained there, then shipped off to Australia and used at the base.

'The actual refugees come from everywhere and anywhere, though a lot are from Africa and the Middle East. Strange thing is, apparently around half of the people in the base have come from America or Europe. I don't mean that they _are_ American or European,' he added quickly, seeing the surprised looks on our faces. 'I mean that they're, say, Korean, but have been able to escape their country and move into another. They've been in working positions, such as maids, gardeners, etc, but something has fallen through and they've been forced to leave. After living in relative luxury for years, they don't want to go back to their countries, or, if they've already been made to go back, they want out. With the majority being war-torn or poverty-stricken, I can't really blame them.' Harry rocked forward and consulted a bunch of papers siting on his desk.

'So where do we come in?' Amber said eventually.

'Well. ASIS have got one of their officers into the security training camp over here- another contact- and MI6 have a few officers that they are going to putting in. We have no idea how big this facility is, or if there are other ones like it so we need as many bodies in there as possible.

'Alex and Hex,' continued Harry, looking at us. 'We obviously can't chuck you in a refugee camp and say "Are you kidding? Not Indian? Come on". We've made the decision that the two of you will pose as security guards. You'll be sent to the training camp with the two MI6 officers in ten days time. We'd normally give you longer to memorise all your background information, but time is something that we don't really have.

'Li. You'll be posing as a Chinese ex-maid. You came to England six years ago and worked with the...' Harry picked up various pieces of paper '...Donaldson family ever since. However, current circumstances have forced you out of that position and now you're in danger of being sent back to your home country, which you don't want to have happen.

'Amber. Your story is very similar, except that you moved to America from Africa when you were a little baby. Your mum managed to find work as a nanny and later as a maid, but, when she died a few months ago, you were left with nothing. Once again, you're at risk of being sent back to Africa.

'And Paulo. You're, obviously, Argentinean, but your situation is very different.'

'You mean I'm not a maid,' said Paulo, feigning disappointment.

'Unfortunately, no. We're lucky enough to have another Argentinean officer with MI6; she will pose as your older sister. The two of you come from a poor family that made some enemies. Your dad ripped off a manager of a big, well-known company and he and your mum were killed in retribution. You and your sister are in serious danger and want to get out of Argentina as soon as possible.

'These little backgrounds may seem a wee bit far fetched,' Harry explained reassuringly, catching the sceptical looks on our faces,' but believe me, these stories are very similar to the lives of almost every single refugee in that facility.'

'Question.' Paulo raised his hand.

'Fire away,' Harry grinned, pointing a finger gun at Paulo. I groaned inwardly; Harry was a really nice guy but could be incredibly lame at times. Paulo lowered his hand.

'Does MI6 have contacts that can guarantee that we get taken to this "facility" or is pot-luck? Oh, and will I be going to Argentina to get selected?'

'That's two questions, but anyway. Kind of and yes.'

'So I'm going back to America?' Amber said.

'Yep. Li will be the only one selected, as Paulo put it, from here.'

'Hang on, hang on,' I floundered, finally getting a word in. 'What do you mean "kind of"?'

'They have contacts that can guarantee you'll be in the right place at the right time in terms of getting noticed, but they can't be certain you'll get picked.'

'Ok. What about transport? How do they actually get people from their country into Australia?' I ticked off question number two on my mental list.

'Guessing by plane to some small, remote island near the top-end of Australia and then by boat.' Harry was rustling through yet more paper, stuffing bits into Manilla folders and chucking others in his already overflowing outbox. He needed a serious lesson in organisation from my mum.

'For a secret organisation, you sure know a lot about them,' said Li, beating me to it.

'Don't ask me how they did it. MI6 have contacts in the weirdest places. There's also the old "this guy, who's on our side, is good chums with this guy, who knows this guy, who dated this guy's sister, who went to school with this guy, who just happens to work in the facility". Things just have a habit of working their way to us. Quite handy, really.'

Hex had been quiet for ages and he finally decided to speak up. 'Me and Alex. We just going to waltz in there, nod our heads and expect them to accept us? If this training thing is top secret, how are we going to explain us knowing about, much less getting in?'

'MI6 have sorted it,' Harry said firmly, as though he was trying to convince himself, not just us. 'As a matter of fact, they've sorted everything.' He casually picked up and dropped various folders, saying, 'Identities, backgrounds, transport, contact information, what brand of baby food you supposedly ate when you were one... They've done everything.' He actually sounded disappointed, which was surprising. Harry, and everyone who knew Harry, always said how much he hated paperwork and working out seamless backgrounds for every mission. He'd whinge and moan and complain about how boring and time consuming it was, but apparently he rather enjoyed it.

'At least you don't have to do it,' piped up Li, who apparently had not reached the same conclusion as me.

'Yeah,' sighed Harry. Gloomily he handed round our background information and left us to get acquainted with our new lives.


	3. Top Secret?

**Apologies. This chapter is **_**very**_** boring but I promise that after it will have a bit more action and excitement. I most likely won't be able to update for a week or two as my school work is starting to pile up and I have just realised that I need to do something about it. I'm really hating this term. **

**But on to the chapter!**

**HEX**

The ten days flew by and before I knew it, I was standing next to Alex at our pick-up location. Every car that so much as slowed down could have been our lift to the training centre and each time one did slow, I had to work hard not to let my breathing get out of control. Alex seemed a lot calmer than me; he was sitting on a bench, a newspaper spread across his lap, every so often flicking a page. He didn't seem to be reading it, just gazing at the pictures and reports.

I wasn't really paying attention to the road any more, so when a car did pull up right in front of us, I jumped a bit. There were two people in the car; a heavily built man with a black beard and a slim lady wearing her grey hair up in a bun.

'I still think Gerald Parks should have won.' The man didn't even look at us.

The woman shook her head. 'No way. Tony Fredricks deserved that victory.'

'Henry Barlow was underrated,' I said.

The man immediately turned to face us. 'Henry Barlow, you say?' Raising an eyebrow he added, 'Are you sure?'

'As sure as ham and salad on rye.'

The man's face split into a grin. 'Our two newbies! Hop on in.'

Alex left the paper where he had found it, on the bench, and followed me into the car. As soon as Alex had shut the door, the car took off. We zoomed along, taking various detours and back roads, the man checking the rear view mirror so often I started to feel very nervous.

About an hour before we arrived, we pulled over on the side of the road and the woman tied blindfolds over our eyes.

'Sorry about this,' she apologised, 'but you can't be too careful.'

I nodded in the direction I thought she was in. 'That's ok.' I sensed, rather than saw Alex nod as well.

When we finally arrived, I whipped the blindfold off and blinked in the sudden sunlight. Beside me, Alex was mirroring my expression.

'This should be an interesting few weeks,' he murmured as we trailed after the man and woman. I never did find out their names.

We were met at the front reception, I guess you'd call it, by a huge man. He towered over us, hands the size of small toasters clenched by his sides.

'Hello,' he boomed. 'I'm Denzi. Welcome.' He extended one hand and I reluctantly shook it, trying to hide my wince.

'Nice to meet you too,' I gasped, cringing and feeling along my fingers for any breaks.

'Same here,' Alex nodded.

Denzi beamed at us and lumbered off, indicating with one hand that we should follow him.

'This is the dorms.' Denzi swept a hand in the direction of a low concrete building, forcing Alex to duck or be knocked out. 'You assigned room later. Now,' he grinned, 'I give you grand tour. Follow.' He took off again in his strange, swaying lope and we took off after him, determined not to be left behind.

'Mess Hall.' A simple brick building with windows lining one wall. Even though it was only early afternoon, people bustled around inside it, preparing food.

'Rec Room.' A large wooden structure two stories high. Through one window I could see a pool table and a few computers but Denzi hurried us along before I could see any more.

'Gym.' Self-explanatory. Various treadmills, bikes, weights, etc dotted around inside a building very similar to the Rec Room. About half a dozen people were inside using the equipment.

'Pool.' There were actually two pools; one indoor and one outdoor. The outdoor one had white shade sails covering the shallow end and a diving board at the opposite end. The indoor one was longer, wider and had lane ropes dividing it.

'Medic Centre.' One building you couldn't miss. It was painted snow white with a huge blood red cross towering three metres high on the building's front. Very impressive.

'Training Area.' We didn't actually get to see the Area on this tour, but Denzi indicated the direction it was in and pointed out the signs.

'Dorms again.' Denzi smiled at us, pleased. 'You like?'

'It's great,' Alex enthused. 'Fantastic. Thanks so much for showing us around.'

'That is fine. I enjoy it. You both go to Mess now. See Genie.' With a little wave, Denzi trotted off, still smiling.

Genie turned out to be a short, plump woman in her late 40s. She sighed and wrung her hands a lot.

'Ah. Our two new ones.' Hand wringing. 'Pleased to meet you. Denzi showed you around then?'

'Yep,' I said. 'He gave us the grand tour.'

'Good.' Wringing. 'Alex, you will be in Dorm 4c. Hex, Dorm 6b. The doors are marked and I'm sure someone will give you a hand if you're still unsure.' A loud sigh. 'Dexter is late, yet again. I must apologise. He's incompetent, but he's also your head trainer. Have a seat and I give him a buzz.' Genie bustled off to phone Dexter, muttering under her breath.

A few minutes later a man, who I assumed to be Dexter, crashed into the Mess Hall.

'Sorry, old chaps!' he cried, spotting me and Alex sitting at a table with bored expressions on our faces. 'Had a wee bit of trouble with one of my recruits.'

'Sure you did!' came Genie's sarcastic comment from the kitchens. 'Blame it on your poor trainees.'

Dexter rolled his eyes and grimaced. 'Nag, nag, nag. That's all she does. Never marry, boys. It ruins your life.'

'I heard that!' Genie poked her head around the corner of the door and scowled at Dexter.

'We'll be leaving then,' Dexter said in a rush, grabbing Alex by the arm and dragging him outside. I followed, wondering in amazement if we'd actually come to the right place. Harry had said "top-secret, highly covert, astonishingly concealed, disciplined facility". Although I had pointed out that he'd basically just said the same thing three times, I understood what he was getting at. My imagination conjured up images of an underground training camp with guys in army gear barking out instructions to the recruits. So much for imagination. This reminded me of a school camp, not a security guard training complex. I'd began to wonder if MI6's intelligence was as reliable as they'd made out. But ASIS _did_ have a man in here, so the facility had to be connected.

Thinking was too exhausting. I was tired, hungry, annoyed and worried, but I couldn't help feeling a bit excited. We were on another mission, trying to help people and I was happy to be finally doing something.

* * *

The training facility turned out to be strictly run and highly disciplined. Alex and I were given two days to settle in and get to know the other recruits before we were flung into a routine rivalling the Army. In a way I was grateful. The early mornings, late nights and constant physical and mental exercise kept me occupied. We were meant to be at the facility for a month, so new recruits came in all the time and old ones left.

About three weeks into the training, Alex pulled me aside. We barely saw each other, let alone spoke since starting training. The dorms each formed a team and we trained in those teams. The only time Alex and I were even in the same room was for meal times and even then we had to sit with our team mates.

'Two things,' he said in a low voice. 'Firstly, the ASIS officer has left. Turns out he was Peter Brown.'

'The quiet guy?' I asked. 'Brown hair, brown eyes. Mr Inconspicuous?'

'Yep. Second thing. The MI6 officers have arrived.'

'What? Just today? Weren't they meant to be here weeks ago?'

'Yeah, but they couldn't get in and then something happened with one of their other covert mission and things went pear-shaped.' Alex sighed. 'One week left. And then we're out of here.'

'And then the real work begins,' I reminded him. 'Wonder how the others are going?' Amber, Li and Paulo were due to start their part of the mission that week and I hoped everything was going well for them.

'I'm sure they're doing fine,' Alex answered immediately. 'Li'll probably fight her way on board the plane, Amber will verbally-joust her way on and Paulo will charm the socks of whoever's choosing the lucky few who get to go.'

I chuckled, picturing it all in my head. 'The plane will be some rare make and Paulo will blow his cover by drooling all over it and saying way too much for a poor homeless guy with a death sentence on his head.' Alex laughed but quickly turned it into a cough as Dexter gave him a funny look and came striding over.

'Come on you two girls! What do you think you're doing, eh?' He raised an eyebrow and pointed at the door. 'Look sharp! Move, move, move! I know you're both leaving at the end of the week but does that give you an excuse to slacken off and natter in the corner? NO!' He frowned at us but I could tell it was forced. 'Hex. Training Area. Alex. Pool. MOVE!'

We scuttled off. I couldn't help grinning. As strict as this place was, everyone was friendly and Dexter wasn't as tough as he liked to make out. I'd enjoyed my three weeks here and I was going to miss it.

Dexter obviously decided I wasn't moving quick enough. 'HEX! MOVE YOUR ASS!'


	4. I Hate Dust

**Hey everyone! Thanks to every single person who's reviewed my last chapters. I know I said that I wouldn't be able to update for a week or two, but I found this chapter on my USB and it was three quarters finished. Inspiration hit me and I managed to complete it. So here it is! The next chapter will probably take a week to come up as it is also half done and on my USB. I will get an idea for a scene or chapter for later on in a story and quickly type it or right it down. Then I'll forget about it. But anyway. Hope every one enjoys this chapter. Li's POV is next and then most likely Paulo's. After those two chapters we'll be in Australia, in the secret facility thing. Oooooohhhhhhhhh.**

**AMBER**

I hate dust. It coats you from head to toe and there's nothing you can do can get rid of it. It's gritty and when you sweat it turns into a foul paste. It gets in your mouth and nose and eyes. It's intolerable at the best of times but after spending hours in a dust bowl, with the sun baking you like a slow roast, it somehow becomes even worse.

There were about 60 people I think, all huddled under a few strung up bits of cloth. We were all waiting for the same thing and that meant that no one really wanted to get to know you. You wouldn't want to become best buddies with someone, then be forced to push them out of the road so you might have a chance at getting noticed.

One little girl was the exception to this. She was a petite thing, with a mop of curly hair and eyes as dark as her skin. I'd say she was only about seven or eight years old. I had been pushed out into the very edges of the shade and she came and sat down next to me.

'Hello,' she said cheerfully.

I was instantly suspicious. Yes, she was only a little girl, but no one had even glanced my way since I'd arrived, let alone sat down and wanted to have a good ol' chinwag.

'Hi,' I replied, deliberately keeping my voice monotone. I gave her a tight smile and turned to look back in front of me, shading my eyes and squinting up at the sky.

'Are you by yourself?' she asked.

'Maybe. Who wants to know?' I was starting to feel incredibly mean.

The little girl's face fell. She'd obviously sensed my hostility and was regretting talking to me. 'Oh, um. It's just that I'm by myself and I...' She trailed off and looked at me, eyes wide.

I gave way to the little voice at the back of my head, berating me for being so mean, and smiled properly. 'Sorry. I'm just a bit suspicious I guess. I really want to get a place on the plane and a couple of people have tried to talk me into leaving.'

'Same.' She lost her hurt look. 'I'm Keisha.'

'Amber.'

We sat in silence for a few minutes, alternating between gazing at the ground and gazing at the sky. Keisha broke the silence. She was a regular little chatterbox, quite happy to tell me everything about her.

'I was born here. America I mean. My dad was killed before I was born and mom wanted to give me a better shot at life. She hitched a ride over from Africa and found work as a maid. Everything was going great; the lady my mom worked for had kids my age and I played with them. Then mom got sick. I don't know why. One morning I woke up and Mrs Pastors, the lady mom worked for, told me she'd died.

'For a few months I stayed with Mrs Pastors, but I knew she wanted me to leave. So I did. I was on the streets for a bit and then I met these people. They told me about a plane that comes and takes people like me to a better place. They felt sorry for me and fixed it so that I could be here when the plane came.' She sighed and blinked rapidly before smiling broadly. 'What about you?'

I hesitated but then decided to use Kiesha as a test to see how good my memory was. 'I don't know whether my dad's alive or not,' I started, keeping my eyes downcast and voice soft. 'My mom brought me over here when I was baby. Like your mom, she got work as a nanny and then a maid. We moved around a lot, because no one wanted an illegal refugee and her daughter working for them for too long.

'Then mom died. She'd been working for this rich couple, Mr and Mrs DeFransco or something like that. I'd been helping out the nanny, though I wasn't getting paid. As soon as mom died, they kicked me out and I ended up living off the streets. 'Apparently the DeFranscos told Immigration about me and they're on the lookout. I listened a lot, but kept to myself and that's how I found out about this plane. I really need to get out of this country or I'm be sent back to Africa. From what my mom told me, I really don't want to go back there.'

Kiesha gazed at me with her huge, brown eyes. She looked a lot like I did when I was her age. 'I'm sorry about your mom.'

I was about to say something, what I have no idea, but I was interrupted by a sudden clamouring from the crowd next to me.

'The plane!'

'Oh, praise the heavens...'

'Saved! We're saved!'

'I've waited so long...'

Everyone stood up and watched the tiny speck grow larger and larger. Before too long it was landing about 20 metres in front of us.

Almost before the doors were opened, everyone surged forward, crying out and waving their hands in the air.

'Help! Please!'

'Take us! We'll be sent back if you don't take us.'

'My children will die if we aren't given a place...'

Kiesha, who'd been quietly standing beside me, clutching my hand tightly, suddenly gave a sob of desperation. 'We'll never get a spot. Look at all the people!'

For about five minutes, chaos reigned. No one had any control over the mass of people. Eventually the pilot had a brainwave and climbed up onto the wing of his little plane.

'Listen up!' he barked. Everyone fell silent, eyes trained on the pilot. 'Ok. We have room for 15 people. 15 only. No more. You have a problem with that, leave now. I have a deadline so if we could do this as quick as possible, that'd be great.'

Everyone started shouting again.

'Shut up!' Silence. 'Right. I will choose who comes with us and who has to stay behind.' He frowned and stared out at the crowd, finally coming across a small family huddled in the centre of the mob. 'Lady in the purple dress. Yes, you. Who are you with?'

The lady stammered, 'M-me, m-my two o-oldest sons and my th-three daughters.'

The pilot frowned, studied the family and nodded. 'Come aboard. Nine spots left.'

I stopped listening. I was crammed at the back and there was no way that I'd get picked amongst all the people here. A few minutes must have passed before Kiesha yelled, 'Please! Sir? Take me and my sister! We're orphans, sir.'

I mentally screamed at Kiesha. She'd probably just blown any chance I had of getting chosen. Suddenly I'd gained a little sister and lost any hope of a ticket out of here. Then, to my utter surprise, the pilot spoke.

'Where's the little girl who just yelled out? Step forward.'

Kiesha tugged my hand and pulled me through the crowd. They glared at us and I flinched like I'd been slapped. If I didn't get a place on this plane, there was a good chance I'd be beaten up badly before I left.

When we reached the front, the pilot considered us, head tilted. 'Hmm...' He looked at me and then at Kiesha. I could imagine what he was thinking. _Just a girl. Slim with no real muscles. A little kid attached as well. Definitely not worth it._

'Ok. Climb aboard.' The pilot jumped down from the wing and pointed at the door. 'Hurry up.'

I blinked in astonishment. 'Huh?'

'Get in the bloody plane. I've got a deadline,' he snapped before stalking around the other side of the plane and climbing into the pilot's seat.

'Come on, Amber,' Kiesha whispered.

In a sort of daze I lifted her into the plane and jumped in myself, shutting the door firmly behind me. Why would someone choose people like me and Kiesha? I looked around the interior of the plane for the first time and suddenly I realised. There were a few groups of people, obviously related to the others in their huddle, in the plane. Each group was made up of at least one young, healthy looking male or female and one or two young children or elderly relative.

It clicked. The young or elderly were insurance.

I glanced sideways at Kiesha, sitting on the seat next to me, swinging her little legs back and forth and humming quietly. As soon as she'd said she was my little sister, she became insurance for me. Without knowing it, Kiesha had rescued the mission for me and helped me get a place. I felt a wave of affection for this little girl; I'd known her for barely half an hour, but already I knew I'd risk my life to save her. I wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing.

**Still searching for a title for this fic. Any suggestions most welcome.**


	5. No Turning Back

**LI**

Just when I thought I'd die of boredom, things suddenly got interesting. And when I say "interesting", I don't mean in a "hmm... I wonder how many smarties I can fit in my mouth" kind of way.

'Good sir. Kind sir. Please, I need you to help me.' The woman was wearing a ragged green dress with a thin shawl. In her arms lay a tiny baby, a few weeks old at the most, and at her feet sat three young children. The man she was talking to- a well dressed guy carrying a briefcase and walking stick- took a step back and stared.

'I'm sorry,' he said tightly. 'I cannot help you.' He hurried away, shooting anxious glances over his shoulder every few metres. The woman frowned and nudged her children to their feet. They staggered weakly and their mother looked defeated. She wandered off, pleading with every passing stranger for help.

That wasn't the interesting bit.

What was interesting was the sudden arrival of a big, blue bus/van type of thing. It trundled past where I was sitting and the driver pressed down on the horn three times. Just as I was wondering what that could have met, the miserable looking woman came staggering back into view, along with just about every other refugee and homeless person around. The took off through the park and I sprinted after them, not because I needed the exercise but because I'd just realised what the honking had been in aid of.

As I skidded to a halt in a remote corner of the park, a man and a woman were waving the crowds back. The woman was looking nervous and trying to open her door. The man gestured angrily and swore at the people before blasting on the horn again. Finally they moved backwards and the man was able to climb out the window and onto the roof. He surveyed the small crowd with distaste.

'This is what I get to pick from?' he exclaimed after a minute or two. 'I've never seen such a bunch of pathetic, miserable, old scabs.' His eyes roamed about the crowd, noticing the majority of elderly people standing wrapped in blankets and old coats.

'You're telling me,' the woman said, 'that not one youngish person is out there?'

The man started to answer, but then his gaze fell on four people standing towards the back. There were two guys and two girls, all of them looking about 15 or 16. They looked like likely candidates until one of the girls turned slightly and I realised with a shock that she was pregnant. 'Those three look promising,' the man answered, pointing at the little group.

'You need your eyes tested, mate?' one of the guys said slightly aggressively. 'There's four of us.'

'Well she's certainly not coming,' the man shot back, jerking a thumb at the pregnant girl. She glared back at him and crossed her arms. There was a few seconds of whispered discussion which resulted in the guy who had spoken and the pregnant girl stepping away from their two friends.

'We'll stay here then.' He slipped an arm around the girl's shoulders. 'Take Cassie and Trevor.'

The man shrugged and pointed at the van. 'Cassie and Trevor it is. Hop in.'

I decided it was time to make myself known. 'Hey!' I jumped onto a rock and waved my arms. 'What about me? Do I pass?'

The man considered me, head on one side. 'Bit on the small side, but looks strong,' he muttered, mostly to himself. He raised his voice and added, 'Not pregnant are you?'

'Not that I know of...' I'd decided I didn't like this guy. He was a smart arse and an idiot.

'Good. Climb aboard. Any other youngsters who want to get out of this hellhole, speak now or die here.'

By this stage I was climbing into the van, but apparently no one else came forward as the van started up a few minutes later. I faced Cassie and Trevor, who were sitting next to each other in the front left corner.

'Hi,' I said. 'I'm Li.'

'Cassie' -Trevor pointed to Cassie- 'and Trevor. Nice to meet you.'

'Likewise.' There was an uncomfortable silence that last several minutes. I grew sick of it and asked, 'The two people you were with... Will they be ok?'

'Dan and Mia?' Cassie chewed her lip. 'I hope so.'

'They'll be fine,' soothed Trevor, smoothing Cassie's hair gently. 'Dan'll look after Mia.' Cassie chewed her lip anxiously and hugged her knees to her chest. Trevor hugged her with one arm before smiling at me.

'Where you with anyone?' he asked.

I shook my head. 'Nope.' The van jolted and I stopped talking as I was thrown to one side. Once the ride had smoothed out and I could stay upright, I continued. 'I moved over here from China about six years ago. My parents died in an earthquake and I had no wish to go into an orphanage, even though it'd only be for a few years. I hitched a ride out here and ended up working as a maid for a really nice family out of town a bit. They went bankrupt about a month ago and I had to leave. I've been on the streets since then, but I kept to myself. If Immigration ever got wind of me being here...' I trailed off, letting him guess the rest.

'I see.' He looked down at Cassie, who'd fallen asleep against him. 'Mia's Cassie's older sister. Dan and I are mates from way back and we found the two of them begging for food. They were really skinny and Cass looked dead on her feet. We took them under our wing, showed them the ropes of living off the streets. Dan and Mia got really close and, well, one thing led to another.' He shrugged. 'I feel sorry for them. It won't be easy bringing up a kid on the streets. We didn't think that Mia would be given a spot; Cassie was devastated. She wanted to stay behind with Mia, but Mia insisted. She wants what's best for Cass and if that means leaving her behind...' Trevor broke off and sniffed.

We sat in silence again. I was getting really agitated. Sitting still is not something I excel at, especially when my seat is a cold, metal floor of a van, jerking along fairly fast. My bum started going numb and then my feet followed. The pins and needles where creeping up to my thighs when the van stopped and there was a sharp thump on the back of the van.

'Out!' barked someone as the doors were thrown open. I blinked in the sudden light and stumbled, half crawling, towards the opening. I was grabbed and roughly pulled out, landing heavily on the tarmac. Fighting the sudden longing to pummel the person who had grabbed, I stood up and took in my surroundings.

We'd pulled up on the edge of a runway. Around us were rolling green hills, an occasional tree plonked here and there. To my right was a largish hangar; through the partially opened doors I glimpsed two tiny planes. Next to the hangar was a small shed and sitting next to the shed was a car. The car looked abandoned with rust covering every available surface and the doors hanging off.

The man that had driven the van grabbed my arm and jerked me towards Trevor and Cassie.

'Go with Olivia,' he ordered, pointing out the woman who had ridden in the van with him. She was chunky, with fuzzy, mousy brown hair. Eyes the colour of steel stared at us, though her gaze was so penetrating that it felt like she was looking through me. I avoided eye contact and shuffled across to her.

'Come with me,' she said. Her accent was strange. Something European, but I couldn't pinpoint what country. Spinning neatly on one heel, she set off at a brisk walk towards a third aeroplane, sitting patiently at the far end of the runway.

I realised with a jolt that this was it. I was about to enter the point of no return; once I stepped onto that plane, I was committed to this mission, to my new identity. It was a hideous risk, but the rush of adrenaline pushed the worries from my mind. Jogging the last half a dozen metres, I climbed the steps and boarded the plane.


	6. Who Knew What

**PAULO**

I leant back further into the shade, wondering when we were going to get out of here. Carla, "my sister", was pacing. I'd met her three days previously and I already knew that she wasn't the most patient person in the world.

'We've been here for two days,' she growled, mostly to herself.

'Relax,' I said, stretching my arms and legs out. We were camped on the edge of a largish clearing. Scattered around us and the remaining perimeter of the field were other people, either by themselves or in little groups. For the first half-day we were here, Carla was relaxed, calmly chatting to the other families waiting the plane. Then she became slightly annoyed. Then she was frustrated. Now... To tell you the truth, I was a little bit nervous as to what she would do if the plane didn't show up before nightfall.

Thankfully I didn't have to find out.

'Thank God,' Carla snapped. She hefted up one of our tiny backpacks and stalked towards the plane as it coasted to a halt on the far end of the clearing. The other people were gathering up their belongings and hurrying in the same direction.

'Carla!' I yelled. 'Hang on!' She stopped and tapped her foot until I caught up. Together we jogged the last 20 metres to the plane.

'...with a pressing need to leave Argentina, hold your hand up in the air.' The pilot demonstrated, extending his right arm stiffly up. Carla and I shared a quick glance before raising our hands. Apart from us, there were about 18 people who needed to leave urgently. Three young couples with small children were chosen. The pilot helped them inside the plane and narrowed his eyes, lips moving slightly as if he was adding up.

'I can take two more,' he eventually announced. The hands waved feebly and Carla decided to play her trump card.

'My brother and I need to get out,' she sobbed. 'Our parents' –she blew her nose- 'made some enemies. T-they were killed and now the enemies after us.' Real tears streaming down her face, Carla chewed her lip and stared beseechingly at the pilot.

He tugged at his collar, face red, before saying, 'Eh... Fine. Hop in.'

As we climbed in, I murmured, 'Good one,' in Carla's ear. She gave a small grin, but quickly wiped it off her face and squeezed out a few more tears.

The next part of our journey was utterly dull. I have no idea how long it was, but I had a good sleep and chatted to the other people during the time it took us to fly to our destination. The small island from above looked like it was scattered with rocks, but, as we got closer, I realised what I was actually seeing. People.

'Holy cow,' Carla breathed, squashing next to me by the tiny window. 'How many are there?' I didn't answer as the pilot started his descent.

I felt slightly nauseous, walking out of the plane. People of all nationalities were dotted about, staying in fascination at us, the newcomers. A lot of them looked as if they'd been here for a while and that's what I thought we'd be forced to do as well. Apparently not.

'All those wishing to depart for Australia, please proceed to D Building. That's all persons wishing to depart for Australia, please make your way to D Building.'

Carla tugged my shirt and pointed to a large, white building with the letter "D" proudly displayed over the entire front wall.

'Could that be D Building?' I asked, mock seriously.

Carla shrugged, looking worried. 'I don't know,' she said. 'We'll just have to take a wild guess.' She smiled suddenly and punched my arm lightly. 'You're alright, Paulo.' I grinned in return and we grabbed our backpacks and made our way towards D Building.

Amazingly, there were just 20 people waiting inside the building. Carla nudged my arm.

'This must be a central point for anyone wishing to get into _any_ other country.' She tilted her head towards a huge world map on the side wall.

'Righto,' I murmured. This was an important development; Alex and Hex were going to be the only two able to contact Harry, ASIS or MI6, so they first chace I got, I'd have to tell them.

We joined the line leading towards the front desk. There were two young women, mid 20s probably, handing out forms to every person. We'd just got our forms and two pens when there was a commotion at the front entrance.

'JERK!'

I winced, recognising Amber's voice. Carla shot me a questioning glance and I quickly whispered, 'Amber.' Her eyebrows went north and her mouth moved silently. Amber was shoved through the door, a little girl clutching her shirt hem.

'You tell that _pig_ not to touch my sister!' she bawled out the door.

Well that was interesting. MI6 sure hadn't authorised any little kids to be undercover with us, therefore Amber must have picked up this little girl somewhere along the way. Amber ripped a form off one of the front desks and huddled in a corner with the girl, filling the form out. I willed her to look our way and, as if she heard me, her head jerked up, eyes staring straight at me. I gave a small, tight smile and frowned questionably at the little girl. She shook her head and dropped her eyes again.

Well. Amber was here, but Li wasn't. I was worried; not only because she hadn't showed up yet, but also because I knew how gutted she'd be if she hadn't of got a place. Carla had finished the forms and she saw my frown.

'What?'

'It's nothing,' I replied quickly. 'I'm just a bit worried about Li, that's all.' She smiled and winked before grabbing the papers and taking them up to the front desk.

'Has everyone filled out the forms?' A large woman wearing a bright pink dress and orange cardigan stood up on a chair, hands waving for attention. 'If you haven't, come see me. If you have, make your way out the door and down to H Building, by the bay.' Carla nudged me and we got up, filing out the door with the other people. I saw Amber give the girl a hug before grabbing her hand and joining the flow of people. I wished I had a video camera.

H Building was no more than a two sided shed. A ragged looking group of men stood around, looking bored.

'Right!' one of them shouted. 'We have some boats, but they're small. We've got a fair way to go, so I want no whinging. Six people in each boat.'

'I'll tell you where to go. Once again, no whinging.' A second man started pointing at people and then pointing at a boat. Carla scowled as she was instructed into the first boat. I played my little brother part, hugging her and telling her not to worry.

Eventually, all the boats were full except for the last one, the boat was in. We had two extra spaces. Amber and the little girl were in the same boat as me. I decide it wouldn't be too suspicious if I sidled up and said hello.

'Hi!' I exclaimed brightly. 'I'm Paulo.'

Amber looked cautious as she said, 'Amber. This is Kiesha.'

'Lovely to meet you,' I said pleasantly. 'Where are-' I broke off as a very familiar voice shouted, 'HANG ON!'

Li barrelled down the slope, closely followed by two more people. She vaulted into out boat, landing almost on top of a young woman and her son. 'Sorry,' she said. Turning to one of the men, she added, 'Room for us?' She jerked a thumb at the two people; they both looked young, about 15, 16.

The captain-guy frowned, looked at us and shrugged. 'You'll have to squish up.'

Li beamed and helped the guy and girl into the boat. 'Cassie... Sit over there.' She pointed to where Amber was huddled with Kiesha. 'Trevor can sit down there.'

I shuffled over and smiled a welcome as Trevor sat next to me. 'Hi. I'm Paulo.'

He nodded. 'Trevor.'

The boat was pushed off and we set sail, heading into who knew what.


	7. Heart of the Beast

**ALEX**

We descended into the very heart of the beast via an elevator. Hex's eyes had just about popped out of his head when they ushered us inside it.

'What?' he had whispered. 'How did they install an elevator out _here_?' I'd just shrugged and quickly lost interest.

But anyway. There were about a dozen of us, crammed into this tiny little box, heading downwards. When the elevator doors opened with a little _ping_, I stared out at what was to be my new home for however long.

Stretching to the far end of the building was a long corridor, a few metres wide. The left side of the corridor had two doors, one a few metres form where we were and the second at the far end of the hallway. On the right side was a single door, also near the elevator.

Our guide, a grumpy woman named Glenda with a thick accent of unknown origin, scowled and pushed past Hex and out into the hallway.

'Look lively!' she barked. 'Follow!' We filed after her, Hex rolling his eyes.

Glenda stabbed a chubby finger towards her left. We all obediently craned our necks to look in that direction.

'Female dorms,' she said. 'Further up, last door, is male dorms.' She swung to her right. 'Follow.'

We trailed after Glenda into a large room that was divided into two sections. The second, smaller section was tucked into the far left corner of the room and contained numerous pieces of gym equipment. The other space left had a TV, couches, bookcases and various children's toys scattered about.

'This is the recreation room, similar to the one you would have all had at the training camp.' Glenda swept down the room, making her way towards a swing door on the far right wall. As she pushed against the double doors and entered the next room she announced, 'Dining room. You will be given a roster to let you know when you will eat, as some guards need to be on duty when the Rabble eat.'

'Rabble?' questioned one of our colleagues.

Glenda fixed her beady black eyes on him and nodded. 'Yes. The Rabble. That's what they're called.' She didn't elaborate any further so I was left assuming that "the Rabble" were the refugees that lived here.

Past the dining room, with the kitchen at the very back, we went through more doors and arrived in a narrow corridor. There were doors at regular intervals up both the right and left hand sides and halfway along the corridor there was a second hallway, stretching away to form a T. Glenda stopped where the two hallways joined. Eight of our companions peeled away, leaving juts us four newbies.

'Kevin?' Glenda had donned her reading glasses and was squinting at a list attached to her clipboard. The guy who'd asked about the Rabble back in the dining room stepped forward.

'That's me,' he said.

Glenda pointed up the second hallway and said, 'You're near the back. Your name's on the door.' Kevin departed with a cheery wave. 'Bruce?'

'Yep.' A tall, stocky guy raised his hand and was Glenda pointed him in the same direction as Kevin. He shuffled off and that left just me and Hex.

'Hex?' Glenda raised her eyebrows. 'That really your name?'

'What's it to you?' asked Hex, sounding annoyed.

Glenda took the hint. 'You're down there.' She jerked a thumb further down the first hallway and Hex made his unhurried way over to his new office and sleeping quarters. That just left me.

'You must be Alex. You're here.' She sidestepped and I saw my name on the door behind her.

'Thanks,' I answered. She spun on her heel and hurried away, leaving me to grab my backpack and push open my door.

The room was not big, but it wasn't poky either. Behind a screen on the left side was a shower, toilet and small sink. The right hand side was the proud bearer of a fold-down bed, currently folded up. Near the back of the room and in the centre was a wooden desk, with a black swivel chair tucked behind it. Beside the desk was a potted plant and that was it. My new home. I dumped my bag in front of the desk and wondered how long I'd have to stay here.

* * *

'This is a wake-up call. All Rabble and group A guards report to the dining room. This is a wake-up call,' the voice blared out of some hidden speaker. I jerked upright, gasping. Rubbing my eyes, I brought my watch towards my face and stared blearily at the luminous numbers. 6:30 am. That wasn't too bad.

I swung my legs out of bed, wincing as my bare feet smacked into the cold concrete floor. I was a group A guard and was now faced with a mad rush to get dressed and down to the dining room.

Five minutes later I was joining nine other guards in front of the kitchen serving bench. Glenda was flitting between tables, snapping at people and wearing her permanent scowl. I got my serving of scrambled eggs, toast and juice and moved to the guards' table. As I sat down, Hex slipped into the seat next to me. Around a mouthful of toast he mumbled, 'Mber's ober dere.'

'What?' I said.

Hex chewed his mouthful and swallowed. 'Amber's over there.' He pointed with his fork across the room. Amber was sitting at one of the Rabble's tables, chatting earnestly to a woman across the table from her.

'Have you seen Li or Paulo?' I asked before taking a sip of juice.

'Nope.' Hex speared a forkful or eggs and toast and shoved it into his mouth. I hid my grin. Typical Hex, making sure Amber was safe and sound. Hex looked up, caught sight of my grin and frowned.

'What?'

'Nothing,' I said with a rush, gazing at my breakfast with sudden interest.

After a very uneventful breakfast, the Rabble were taken back to their dorms and us guards gathered in the recreation room.

'Welcome to our four new fellas,' boomed a short, muscly man. 'My name's Don.' We introduced ourselves and he proceeded, this time addressing the whole 30 of us.

'Group A guards- you're in female dorms this morning. Group B are in male dorms and group C are off duty. When you hear the buzzer, A move to male section, B take a break and C go to female dorms. The second buzzer, that'll be this afternoon, A's off duty, B's in female dorms and C goes to male dorms.' He paused for breath before yelling, 'DISPERSE!'

We scrambled off, heading out into the corridor and across into the female dorms. This section had corridors arranged like a sideways E, with each corridor having rows of rooms up each side. Hex, Kevin and I went down the first corridor, leaving the remaining seven to split into two groups. We stepped into the corridor, prepared for many hours of boredom. In our training, we'd been instructed on how to properly patrol this facility. All that was required was for us to check in each room every now and then, making sure there were no fights, disputes or anything illegal going on. Kevin went down the far end and Hex went in the middle, leaving me to start at the front.

Each door had a chart on the front of it, with the first names of the occupants listed on it. My first room had no one in it, so I moved to the second.

'Dharini, Nadia, Tahra and Bibi,' I muttered, pushing open the door. The four young girls sitting inside didn't even look up as I shoved open the door. Obviously they were used to the regular comings and goings of the guards. I shut the door and moved on.

The second room was occupied by three girls, as unfazed by my sudden entrance and exit as the first four were. I'd just begun to open the third door when I heard Hex's shout.

'Oi!' He sounded angry. Really angry.

I darted back out, aware that all the doors were suddenly being flung open. Faces peered out, wondering where the commotion was coming from and what it meant. Room number nine seemed to be the source of all the excitement. The door was wide open and there were shouts coming form inside. Kevin was trying to maintain some order, shouting at the other girls to get back in their dorms. They ignored him and pressed forward, straining to see what was happening. I pushed through the crowd and into dorm nine.

Hex was standing over a short Chinese girl, yelling at her.

'...how bloody irresponsible are you? You think picking on a little girl will make you tough? You're an idiot!' Hex was spewing fire. I turned my attention to the other side of the room and suddenly I understood why he was so riled.

Amber was slumped in the corner of the room, blood running down her forehead. There was a large gash above her right eyebrow and the blood was streaming from there. Huddled under one of Amber's arms was a small girl. I blinked in surprise when I saw the two of them. They looked so similar! Both of them had short, curly black hair, brown eyes and even their mouths had a similar shape. It was freaky.

Hex had finished his rant and was now looking at Amber with undisguised concern.

'You alright?' he asked.

Amber's fingers gingerly touched the gash on her head. 'Yeah.' She cringed. 'I might need some stitches.'

'Right.' Hex glared at the Chinese girl once more before helping Amber to her feet. 'You need to go see the nurse.'

Amber looked like she was about to protest, but then sighed and nodded. 'Ok.' The little girl was clutching Amber's jeans and the two of them shuffled past me, out the door.

'Cause any more trouble,' Hex growled at the Chinese girl, 'and suffer the consequences.'

'Whatever,' she sniffed. I heard Hex grinding his teeth from the doorway and quickly intervened.

'Come on, Hex,' I said. He walked stiffly towards me and out into the corridor. I sighed and followed him. Things hadn't started great.


	8. Coliseum

AMBER

**AMBER**

Keisha was gripping my hand so tightly I was afraid that my fingers were going to drop off. Mei had really freaked her out. When we'd been put in that dorm, Mei had been smiling and chatty. She'd ignored Keisha but was pleasant enough to me. I have no idea what happened, but I went to the bathroom off the side of our room, heard Keisha screaming, ran back in and saw Mei laying into Keisha. I started yelling at her to back off and she turned around, pushing me away. I fell and somehow cut myself on the edge of the bed and all I could do was peer through the blood flowing freely down my face and hurl obscenities at Mei.

Then Hex arrived. I'd never seen him so angry, except when I'd chucked his palmtop into the sea when we were on board the _Phoenix_. He barged into the room, saw Mei punching Keisha, me in the corner with my head doing a great impression of a waterfall, and flipped. Mei's about three heads shorter than Hex, so when he grabbed her, she gave up without too much of a fight. Keisha scuttled towards me and hid under my arm. I still couldn't get my limbs to work properly, but I managed to flop one of my arms around Keisha. She was breathing really shallow and taking quick, desperate gasps.

As Hex yelled at Mei, Alex's head appeared around the door. Behind him, another guard was pushing back the other girls that had flowed out of their rooms to see what the fuss was about. My vision swam and I blinked. I have no idea whether I blacked out for a moment, but the next thing I remember, Hex was leaning over me, asking if I was ok and then demanding that I go and see the nurse.

So that's where we were headed. The nurse had a small office at the end of the hallway, tucked away next to a huge potted fern. I knocked on the door.

'Come in,' a pleasant voice immediately responded. Keisha swayed against me so I picked her up, eyes almost falling out at how light she was. I'd noticed Keisha was skinny and short for her age, but this was unreal. The door was unlocked, so I knocked the handle down with my elbow and shoved it open with my hip.

As I staggered into the room, a slender young woman looked up. She had ginger colored hair that fuzzed out like a weird halo around her head. Her welcoming smile disappeared as she caught sight of my face and of Keisha, head lolling against my shoulder.

'What happened?' she gasped, getting up from behind her desk, grabbing a black bag that I assumed held all her medical do-das, and hurrying towards us.

'We, ah, got into a bit of a scrap.' I gently lowered Keisha onto a chair and stood back, allowing the nurse to have a look at her. She fussed around for a few minutes before stepping back and turning to face me.

'I want to keep her in here for a few days. She'll probably just have some bruising, but she's young and undernourished so it could turn nasty. Now,' she added, peering closely at my cut, 'what about you.'

Harry had decided it would be best to be honest about my diabetes. That meant I wouldn't have to sneak around and my life wouldn't be in any danger. 'I'm a diabetic,' I said.

'Right.' The nurse frowned and gestured to the chair. 'Hope on and get comfy; I need to stitch you up.'

'Will Keisha be ok, ma'am?' I asked.

The nurse chuckled and nodded. 'She should be, and please, don't call me "ma'am". My name's Annie.'

'I'm Amber.' I closed my eyes as instructed and felt the needle slide under my above my eye.

'Lovely name,' Annie said. She pulled the needle out and I started to lose feeling in the top left part of my face. I heard packaging being ripped open and imagined Annie threading a needle, leaning over me and starting to sew my flesh back together. Gross.

Ten minutes later I was walking down the hallway, back to the female dorms, wondering when I'd be able to move my face again. Alex was hovering outside of the female dorm entrance and he winced when I wandered up.

'What?' I snapped. My face was aching, I was worried sick about Keisha and angry at myself for not doing something more to help her.

Alex sensed my hostility and wisely backed off. 'Nothing.' He lowered his voice. 'That Chinese girl's been moved to room 12.'

'So?'

Alex's face split into a wide grin. 'So, she won't be beating anyone up any more.'

I rolled my eyes. 'There are still _people_ in room 12, Alex.'

'I know,' he said, sounding way too happy. 'But one of those people is Li.'

I surprised myself by chuckling. 'Serves her right. Mei, I mean, not Li.'

'You should move,' Alex mumbled, lowering his voice. He tilted his head slightly towards the end of the corridor. I looked just in time to see two guards just emerging from the male dorms.

'Sorry, sir,' I said, waiting for Alex to unlock the door so I could move back into the dorms.

'Be careful, Amber.' Alex patted my shoulder and pushed the door open for me.

* * *

Despite my rather eventful morning, the rest of the day was utterly dull. I got permission after lunch to go and visit, Keisha; she was so glad to see me she burst into tears. The poor kid had been through so much, I felt really bad I was only pretending to have suffered. Annie was just as welcoming as when I had barged in that morning and she chatted happily about everything. She's so nice and really cares about everyone here. I'd been starting to think that this place wasn't so bad, despite all the security, but something happened that blew that idea straight out of my head.

It must have been about four o'clock in the afternoon. We were taken out of our dorms and escorted in bunches "above ground". After we'd gone up in the lift, we were led around the back of it, not outside. There was a smallish door set into the wall and we were ushered through it, into another lift. Down we went, finally arriving in a large arena style building that must have been built alongside the center's main facilities. It looked like a mini version of a baseball stadium.

'What?' muttered Asha. She was about my age and had fled slavery in India last year. She'd been at the institution for a month and had given me a lot of insight into the day-to-day running of the place. 'I have never been in here before.'

'Maybe they're going to give us a performance,' I joked. If I had of known then what was about to happen, I wouldn't have been joking around. I would have been screaming and demanding to be locked back in the dorms.

Except for mealtimes, males and females were always separated. This time, males were given the left side of the arena and we were given seats on the right side. Guards were dotted all over the place, each one armed and looking very deadly. I tried to catch sight of Li, Paulo, Hex or Alex, but there were so people. I settled into a seat next to Asha and shot her a questioning look.

'What do you think's going to happen?' I asked.

Asha shrugged. 'I do not know.'

We found out about three and a half minutes later. During a history lesson, back in grade 10, we watched a documentary on ancient Rome. They had a segment on the Coliseum, with an animated example of what one of the "shows" put on would have been like. This was like that.

The girl- she wouldn't have been more than fourteen years old- rose up out of the sand-strewn arena in a metal cage. Long, broken fingers gripped the bars of her prison and huge, terrified eyes peered beseechingly at us. Her face was gaunt and drawn, her arms and legs stick thin. She wore nothing but a grubby cotton shift and her long, black hair was mattered and filthy. I started to feel sick. Beside me, Asha gripped my arm, her small hand shaking.

'This girl,' boomed a voice, 'was caught trying to escape.' A short man, who must have spent most of his time in a gym working out, had climbed onto a platform at one end of the arena. No one was seated behind him, so he was able to address everyone in the crowd. 'This girl, will be punished.'

A door in the cage sung open and the girl looked nervously through the sudden space.

'No,' Asha whispered. 'This is terrible.' I barely heard her, my eyes fixed on the scene unfolding in front of me.

'Don't be shy,' the man on the platform shouted. 'Come on out.'

The girl edged out until she was standing completely out of the cage. Immediately, with a _whoomph_, the cage sunk back into the depths. The girl turned around, startled, and her eyes grew even bigger as she caught sight of what was crouched at the opposite end of the arena.

Two lionesses, fur sleek and golden, were coiled to spring. The girl gave a half gasp-half sob and took three quick steps backward. 'Please!' she cried. 'No!' The lionesses, excited by the girl's sudden movement, began their stalk, edging closer and closer to their prey.

'Don't run,' I begged silently. 'Don't run.'

The girl ran. Losing her nerve, she gave a scream and spun around, racing towards the platform and the short man. The lionesses charged, two gleaming gold missiles, intent on hitting their target. I shut my eyes as the cats leapt, but I could still hear the girl's shrieks. Asha had buried her face in her hands and was sobbing. Around us, everyone was sitting in shocked silence. I couldn't see them, but I knew that everyone would be as horrified as we were. As the screams and roars died away, I kept my eyes shut tight, not wanting to see what the lionesses were doing to the girl now that they had caught her.

'You try to escape and you are caught, you die. You try to escape and you succeed, your family dies.' The man sounded happy and relaxed and I knew that he would have sat on his podium and watched eagerly as his pets devoured the girl.

My stomach heaved but I fought down the urge to be sick everywhere. I was now very glad that Mei had hurt Keisha; at least she hadn't have had to sit through that.

I'd had my eyes shut for about five minutes so I opened them up. It was like nothing had happened. There were five people down on the sand, raking the covering. The cats had obviously been caught and the girl…

I looked across the arena and caught sight of Hex. Our eyes met and I saw how horrified- and scared- he was. His expression said everything I was feeling. _We need to shut this place down. Now._


	9. Setup

**A/N Short chapter.**** I have also posted the first chapter of my new Alpha Force fic, The Assassin's Touch. I should be posting the next chapter in a few days. **

**PAULO**

I woke up to screaming. My eyelids feeling heavier than sandbags, I groggily sat upright and looked around. My roommate was still asleep, lying on his back, but two guards were standing over him, looks of horror and revulsion on their faces. I was still struggling to grasp what was happening, when two more guards entered the room.

'What's going on in here?' one of the newcomers snapped.

The two guards who were leaning over my roommate turned around. 'He's dead, sir,' one of the replied, disbelief ringing in his words.

I blinked, wondering if I'd misheard. Looking at my roommate properly, I suddenly realised that he was lying very, very still. And then I saw the knife. It was sticking horizontally out of his chest, a small dagger with ornate carvings on the handle. Four faces turned towards me and suddenly it became clear.

'No way,' I said with a rush. 'I didn't kill him. I swear.'

Three of the guards looked at the remaining one. He was the guy who had asked what was going on and was obviously in charge. 'You expect me to believe that?' he said.

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'Because it's the truth!'

'Well then,' the senior guard hissed with more than a touch of menace, 'you tell me how he ended up with the knife in his chest?'

'I've been asleep! How would I know?' I was starting to panic.

'Well then,' the senior guard said for the second time. 'This is a dilemma.' He leaned closer to me and snarled. 'All I know is that I've got a dead body over there and I need to punish whoever killed him.'

'Well look somewhere else, because I didn't do it,' I argued. The senior guard looked evenly at me for a moment before reaching for a pair of handcuffs attached to his belt.

'I don't see any flying pigs,' he said as he snapped them onto my wrists. 'Let me know if you do, though. Maybe I'll believe you then.'

The senior guard marched down the corridor and I was dragged along behind, my arms clutched by two other guards. We walked through the main dorm door and into the corridor. Just my luck that it was nearing breakfast time and everyone was streaming into the recreation room and then into the dining room. The hall was full of people, all of them looking at me with varying degrees of amusement, concern and curiosity.

Alex and Hex frowned and scuttled towards us.

'What's happened?' Hex demanded.

'Dead body in room six. The only other occupant was this guy.' The guard on my right side fumbled for my pass. 'Paulo Garcia,' he read.

'So he confessed?' Alex said.

'Nope- he says he's innocent. But who else could it be?' The guards let go of my arms and started to head towards the dining room. The senior guard had left so they obviously thought they were off the hook. 'You can deal with him, yeah? Lock him up in a spare cell in the female dorms; no rooms left in the male section.'

Hex pushed me up against the wall. 'Explain,' he growled.

I wasn't sure whether he was acting or not. 'I woke up about ten minutes ago and was told I'd killed my roommate. I didn't touch him!'

Hex stepped back and ran a hand through his hair. 'Oh, God,' he groaned. 'This just keeps getting better, doesn't it.'

'What? What happened?' I asked.

'Amber was in a fight yesterday morning. The girl who started it, Mei, we moved her to the room Li's in.' Alex paused and I got a bad feeling. 'This morning we heard screaming and found Mei trying to suffocate Li with a pillow.'

'Is she ok?'

Nodding, Alex said, 'Yeah. Shaken up but ok. We've put Mei in a room by herself now.'

'You should have done that to start with,' I snapped.

'Cool it,' ordered Hex. 'You're in really deep, really hot water right now. We'll have to put you in the end room and try and sort out this mess.'

We had to wait for the crowds to lesson before we could make our way into the female dorms. Amber was coming out as we started to go in and she gave me a shocked look. I lowered my eyes and she took the hint, hurrying past us.

As we neared the end of the row of rooms, I mumbled, 'That cut over Amber's eye. Was that what Mei did to her?'

'Yeah,' answered Hex through gritted teeth. He stopped outside the last room of the row and unlocked the door. 'Sorry about this.'

'It's ok,' I muttered, stepping inside. As I turned around and Hex closed and locked the door again, Alex gave me tight smile through the hatch.

'We'll sort this out, Paulo. I promise.'


	10. Missing Evidence

**A/N Another shortie, but they will get longer. Give me another few chapters and they will back to normal length. **

**LI**

Amber hurried towards the table I was sitting at, a worried expression on her face. 'You won't believe what just happened,' she babbled as she slid into the seat opposite me.

'What?' At that moment I wasn't too concerned, thinking that Amber's "important news" would be something trivial. I sipped at my juice.

'Paulo's been locked in isolation. The guards think he killed his roommate.'

I spluttered and choked on my juice. 'When did this happen?' I managed to say eventually.

'Just now. I was coming out of the dorms and Hex and Alex walked into the dorms with Paulo. I asked Asha and she said that four guards had found his roommate with a knife in his chest this morning. Since it was Paulo and the other guy who were in there, the blame automatically fell on Paulo. One of the senior guards told them to put him one of the spare rooms at the back of our dorms, since the male section hasn't got any spare.' Amber took a few deep breathes.

'What's going to happen to him?' I gasped, thinking the worst.

Amber shrugged. 'No idea, but I'm going to try and find out.' She gave me a strained smile, reached across the table and squeezed my hand. 'Sit tight; I'll be back soon.'

As Amber walked across the dining room towards Hex, I sat in stunned silence. There was no way that Paulo would even _think_ of killing anyone, let alone stab someone to death. This was a setup, I was sure of it.

Leaving my soggy mess of weetbix and milk, I scurried towards Alex. He was sitting by himself at a table tucked into the corner of the room. Next to him was a pin board with notices on it. Standing with my back half turned from him, I pretended to read the notices.

'Amber told me what happened,' I said in a low tone.

Alex didn't look at me, but kept eating as he answered, 'He's been setup.'

'Exactly.' I was relieved that someone else thought the same as me. 'Paulo wouldn't kill anyone.'

'How do we prove he's innocent? All the evidence is circumstantial, but it's pointing straight at Paulo.'

I thought wildly for a moment and then suddenly the answer was there, staring me straight in the face. 'Hang on. All the rooms have cameras in them.'

Alex did look at me then, a huge grin on his face. 'Genius,' he exclaimed.

'How do we see the footage?'

'Easy. Hex just so happens to be one of the security techies. He's got part of the system in his office-room. I'll get him to have a look at it.'

* * *

Half the day had passed and still no word had come from Alex or Hex. I was sitting with Amber and Asha in the recreation room. Some mid-day soap was on TV and we weren't paying attention to it. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alex hovering by the water cooler.

''Scuse me,' I said. 'I need a drink.' Standing up, I forced myself to walk calmly and slowly across to the water cooler.

As I bent down to get a drink, Alex whispered, 'Hex can't get away. You and Amber will have to look at the footage.'

'How?'

'Hex's name is on his door. It's near the end of the corridor. You'll have to go now, though, while everyone's busy.' With that, he sauntered off, whistling cheerfully. Great.

When I got back to Amber, Asha had disappeared.

'Where did Asha get to?' I asked.

'Her room had their rec time run out. Just the two of us, now.' Amber frowned as she saw the look on my face. 'What are you planning?'

'It's not what I'm planning,' I said, 'it's what Alex _has _planned.'

* * *

Pushing open the door to Hex's office-room, Amber gaped. 'Look at this mess!' she exclaimed. She hopped over a pile of clothes and waded through even more. The monitors were at the back of the room; five little screens, each one split into four. Twenty possible chances that the camera in male dorm, room six would feed directly to here.

'Ok,' I said, rubbing my hands together. 'Let's see.' I clicked a few buttons and, with a lot of luck and absolutely no skill, managed to bring up the names of the cameras.

'These three are for male dorms,' Amber announced, tapping the three screens at the end.

'Does it say what room?' I asked as I joined her.

'Um…' Amber flicked a few more buttons and twisted some dials. 'Hex will kill us if we break this.'

'Hex won't be the only one,' I muttered, thinking about the rather aggressive guards.

'Ah ha!' On each little screen there was now a room number.

'One, two, three, four.' The first screen brought no joy, but the second…

'Yes!' cried Amber. 'Room six. Now we just need to find the tape.'

It took us another five minutes to find the tape amongst Hex's mess. Putting it in, we fast-forwarded to the last night.

'Here we go,' I started to say, when suddenly the tape cut out. My jaw dropped. 'What happened?'

Amber was slapping the screen. 'The tape cut out.'

'I know that!' I snapped. 'Why?'

She never got to answer me, because at that moment the door opened.


	11. Alarms and Guns

**HEX**

'What are you doing in here?' I glared at Amber and Li. Amber had her hand pressed against her heart and Li was doing very deep breathing.

'Don't _do_ that!' snapped Amber. 'Gave me a bloody heart attack.'

I quickly shut the door behind me. 'Need I remind you that this is my room.'

'Remind us all you want,' Li said, recovering from her fright quicker than Amber, 'but have a look at this at the same time.'

I watched the monitor she was pointing to. There was Paulo, sleeping like a baby, and his roommate, sleeping like a log. 'And I'm watching this because…?'

'Just watch,' Amber said sharply, obviously still annoyed at me. As she said this, the screen gave a little _blip_ and went blank.

'Odd…' I murmured.

'Are you the only one who can control the camera settings for this room?' asked Li.

I shook my head. 'Nope.' Deciding to forfeit the lengthy explanation, I added shortly, 'It's complicated, but there's two, I think, other guards that can access the same cameras as me.'

Amber swore. 'Why do things always have to get so damn complicated?!' She looked really upset and I had the sudden urge to comfort her.

'It's alright,' I said in what I hoped was a soothing tone. 'We'll sort this out.'

'How is this "alright"?' Amber waved her arms around. Squashing down the numerous sarcastic and annoying comments bubbling up, I took a deep breath and ejected the tape.

'We'll sort this out,' I repeated. 'Trust me.'

'We should go, Amber.' Li's voice startled me; I'd actually forgotten she was in the room.

'Yes. Yes you should,' I agreed. 'Your rec times almost up.' They swept out of the room, leaving me to puzzle over the weird tape.

I was more and more certain that Paulo had been set up. Apart from the fact that Paulo would _never_ hurt anyone intentionally, unless he was faced with no other option, there was the tape and the fact that someone had managed to slip in to room six without the guards noticing. At this stage I wasn't sure if it was someone from the Rabble or a guard; if it _was_ someone from the Rabble then they had help from a guard or two. And then there was the question of why. Was it Paulo they wanted to get back at? Or was it the guy they killed and Paulo just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? I groaned and slid down the wall until I was sitting on the floor. For some reason I found myself staring at the mess surrounding me.

'Right,' I muttered, standing up. 'Cleaning time.'

Clothes into cupboard. Books onto shelf. Blankets into basket and bed folded up. Chair off desk and tucked neatly behind it. Soil back in potted plant. Rug off lamp and stretched neatly on floor. It took me half an hour but in the end I was reasonably satisfied. Cleaning had helped to take my mind off things and now I could look at them in a fresh light. First thing to do was call Harry.

I'd just picked up my mobile when a shrill alarm ripped through the building. I squawked with fright and dropped the mobile. Just before I picked it up again, my door was shoved open and Don's square face glared in at me.

'Move it, Hex!' he barked. I looked at my mobile, but had no opportunity to casually grab it. _Oh well_, I thought. _It's probably just a drill. I can call Harry later_.

Don powered down the corridor, forcing me to almost sprint to keep up. For a guy with really short legs, Don moved like lightning. As we hurried into the dining room, I cursed the fact I hadn't been able to get my mobile.

This was definitely not a drill.

Why the alarms had been activated, I don't think I'll ever know, but panic had spread through the centre like wildfire.

'What's happening?' I yelled at Don, but he'd disappeared. I swung wildly around, trying to see through the crowds. This was bad. This was really bad.

Our mission was sunk, that much was clear. We had to get out, now. The alarm still screaming shrilly, I raced back across the dining room, through the swing doors and down the corridor to my room.

Crashing through the door, I headed straight for my desk. Grabbing the phone, I hit Harry's number and muttered under my breath as it rang and rang.

'Come on, come- Harry?'

'Hex?' Harry paused for a split second and I could hear the confusion in his voice as he said, 'What the heck is that sound?'

'Never mind. I mean, someone's activated the alarm and all hell's broken loose. We need out.' I jammed my hand against my other ear in an attempt to block out the noise, unfortunately that also blocked out the sound of running feet and my door being pushed open. Before Harry could answer, a bullet slammed into the back wall. I jumped and spun around dropping the phone. It fell to the ground and, without realising, I took an involuntary step to the left and cracked the screen. Crap.

A guard stood in front of me, right by the door. He took several quick steps toward me, holding a gun trained on me the whole time. He never took his eyes off me and I raised my hands in the air. Was he going to shoot me? Probably, but as things turned got, he never got the chance.

When you've got someone at gunpoint, and that someone has a gun on their belt, you don't turn around. This guy obviously didn't know that. The door was pushed open and another guard entered. The guard in front of me half turned to see who had come in, and I took the opportunity laid out before me. Pulling the gun from my belt, I silently thanked Dexter for his firearm training. I really didn't want to shoot the guy, but I had no choice. Pulling the trigger, the gun jerked in my hand. A bullet slammed into the guard's back, near his shoulder. He screamed and collapsed, ending up lying face down on the floor in front of my desk. This guard also hadn't been taught not to aim a loaded gun at anyone who you don't intend to shoot. His friend in the doorway copped two bullets, as the guard I just shot's finger spasmed on the trigger. The second guard went down without a sound, landing on his back in the doorway. I heard the sound of running feet and quickly ducked down behind the desk, gun at the ready.


	12. Escape

**AMBER**

There were people everywhere. Little kids ran screaming down the hallways, trying to find their parents and parents flittered about, desperate to be reunited with their children. Annie had brung Keisha to the rec room for a visit, but now I was wishing she was safe in the nurse's office. I'd lost sight of her when the alarm had started and I was struggling to find one little girl amidst all this chaos.

'Keisha!' I screamed. 'Keisha!'

Annie was running past me but she stopped when she heard me yelling.

'Down there,' she gasped.

'Down where?' I just refrained form strangling her.

'Near the offices. But Amber-'

I took off again, ignoring Annie's shouts, tearing towards the offices. As I burst through the swing doors at the end of the cafeteria and into the hallway, the noises behind me suddenly seemed distant. There was just one person in the corridor, hurrying past me, but even they seemed to disappear. All of my attention was fixed on a small body, lying just ten metres from where I stood.

Almost in a dream- or a nightmare to be more accurate- I ran towards Keisha, my throat tight and cheeks wet with tears. I threw myself down on my knees next to her, barely noticing I had just knelt in a huge pool of blood.

Keisha's blood.

She was lying on her stomach and I couldn't see any wound on her back. Feeling sick, I rolled Keisha over onto her back. Bile rose in my throat and I had to look away, gulping air into my lungs. She'd been stabbed half a dozen times; four in her stomach and two in her chest. Whoever had killed her had obviously wanted to be sure she was dead.

There was nothing more I could do. My urgency to find Keisha had been replaced with an urgency to find my friends. Blood had soaked into my jeans and I had patches on my t-shirt and smear on my hands and arms. Wiping my hands as best I could, I stood up, feeling like I was betraying Keisha by not collapsing in a pile on the floor and sobbing my heart out. But there was no time for an emotional breakdown. Later I'd do just that, huddling in a corner and crying and crying, but now I'd noticed something.

More blood. It was just a small, red stain on the floor, protruding about 10 centimetres past the half closed door of an office a dozen metres ahead of me. What was more shocking than my sudden discovery of the blood, was the realisation of where it was coming from.

I stumbled towards Hex's office, dreading what I was about to find. When I'd found Keisha, it had felt like someone had ripped my heart out. Now it was if that person had waved it in my face and was making me watch them hack into it with a knife.

Fresh tears filled my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. I pushed the door open the rest of the way and was met with a horror-movie scene.

Two bodies were stretched out on the floor. The one closest to me, the reason the door was only half shut, was belly-up and I could tell straight away it wasn't Hex. The second body was lying on its stomach in the middle of the room, a metre or so in front of the desk. I couldn't tell whether it was Hex or not; the body was about the same height and build, had brown hair and was wearing a guard uniform. I realised that, once again, I would have to turn the body over.

I'd barely taken two steps into the room before there was a shout and a person popped up from behind the desk, gun pointed straight at me. I screamed, but my scream turned into sob as I realised who was on the other end of the gun.

Hex chucked the gun on the desk, looking startled. I think he'd just realised how close he'd come to shooting me into oblivion. He looked back at me and gave a relieved smile, but that quickly turned to shock.

'What the hell happened?' he gasped.

'Huh?' I was still crying, but hardly realised.

Hex just pointed at me and quickly came around the side of the desk. 'Please tell me that's not your blood.'

I looked down at my t-shirt and jeans, suddenly remembering Keisha's little body with a painful clarity. 'N-no.' My voice wobbled and I staggered. Hex grabbed my arm and helped me sit on the edge of the desk. 'Keisha-.' I cleared my throat and started again, my voice still shaking. 'Keisha's dead.'

Hex closed his eyes for a second and lowered his head before putting his arm around my shoulders. 'Oh God,' he murmured. We sat like this for a moment, but Hex was itching to get out. He grabbed my hand, slipped the gun into the holster on his belt and we ran out of the office.

Hex gasped as he saw Keisha's body and I squeezed his hand tightly. He averted his eyes and sped up.

'I'm so sorry, little one,' I murmured. 'So sorry.'

We burst into the cafeteria to find... no one. The entire place had been deserted.

'What the hell...?' Hex said in astonishment. 'Where did-'

An even shriller alarm startled us. I'd become so used to the background noise of the other alarm, I hadn't noticed it had been switched off. What was worse about this new alarm, apart from the high pitch, was the voice over the top of it. _'Self-destruction in...two minutes.'_

'Shit,' Hex gasped. 'We have to get out.'

We started sprinting again and I answered, 'No duh. Unless you _want_ to get blown to smithereens.'

He shot me a disbelieving look. 'We're running for our lives and you still have time to be a smart ass.'

The rec room was the same: empty with the annoyingly shrill alarm and ominous voiceover.

_'80 seconds...'_

'Crap, crap, crap, crap,' I chanted under my breath. We were out in the hallway, elevator to our left. Swerving in its direction, Hex jabbed the button. Nothing happened. He jabbed it again.

'Let me try.' I pushed past him and gently poked the red button. Another gentle poke before I started slamming my fist into it. 'Come on!' I sobbed.

Hex pulled my hand away. 'There's a fire escape.'

Hope glimmered brightly. 'Where?'

'End of the hall.'

We sprinted for it, all too aware of the voice.

_'50 seconds.'_

'Go.' Hex shoved me towards the ladder. I had a flashback to our time in Alaska, all those years ago. I shook my head. No time for reminiscing. 'Climb!' he shrieked.

_'40 seconds.' _

I started up the ladder and Hex followed close behind. I slipped and almost fell, but managed to hook my arm around the bar. Hex let out a squawk below me as my foot connected with his head.

'Sorry,' I called.

'Doesn't matter. Keep going.'

'Almost there.' I could see daylight through the wire hatch.

_'20 seconds.'_

'Open!' I screamed, pushing with all my might. The hatch groaned in protest but popped open. I hurled myself out of the hole, turned around, grabbed hold of Hex's arm and pulled him out.

_'10 seconds.'_ The voiceover was just as loud out here.

'Move it!' Hex cannoned into me and I ran forwards. Everything seemed to slow down. We were running as fast as we could, but we didn't seem to get anywhere. Hex bumped into me and pushed me towards a pile of felled trees.

_'5 seconds.' _

We dove behind them, just as the ground rumbled and the earth over the centre cracked and a huge pile shot up with a _whoompth_. Hex was laying over me and we were behind the stack of tree trunks, but I still felt horribly exposed. Bits of tree and clumps of dirt rained down on us. Suddenly a thought occurred to me.

'Hex?' I yelled.

'What?'

'Our friends.'

He paused for a split second before saying, 'They would have gotten out.' I decided to trust his judgement and not just because what he had said had been what I wanted to hear.

After a few minutes, we got up and peered cautiously over the tree.

'Holy crap,' gasped Hex. I had to agree with him. Where the facility used to be was a gaping hole. It was wide and deep and the explosion had obviously made the ground surrounding it very unstable.

'We need to get out of here,' I announced. 'What if someone comes?'

'Good point.' Hex stood up and brushed himself off. 'Harry said they were going to have a base set up nearby.' He started to walk away from the crater. I pulled a stick from my hair and ran after him.

'Hang on,' I said, drawing level. 'Do you know where this base is? What direction? A rough estimate of how far away? Town? Bush? Lake? Tree?'

Hex looked at me disbelievingly. 'He said south.'

I waited for him to elaborate but he remained silent. 'And…'

'And what?'

God, he was frustrating. 'Where south?'

'Dunno.' Hex looked up at the sun and used his watch to work out where south was. 'Thatta way.' He strode off again, forcing me to run after him.

'Stop.' I grabbed Hex's arm and dug my heels in. He reluctantly stopped and faced me. 'South is a good start, but where exactly are we going?'

'We'll walk until we find a town, borrow a phone and call Harry. He can come pick us up. Easy as pie.' He looked pointedly at me. 'Can we go now?'

'Sure.' I let go off his arm and we started walking again. 'Though we could have been walking for the past five minutes if you had of been more open on your plan.'

'Not talking would conserve your energy,' said Hex. I glared at him, but couldn't stay angry for long. As annoying as Hex was, I was really glad he was ok.


	13. Relocation

**PAULO**

_Dios_, I was bored. I'd been in this stupid "isolation cell" for almost the entire day and I was already going stir crazy. How I would stay sane if I was going to be locked up in here for a long time was beyond me.

Sleeping was the only thing that made the time go quickly. I'd just drifted off for the umpteenth time when a loud wailing made me jerk back up again. my first thought was an air raid, then I dismissed that thought as the sound was way too loud, not to mention the fact that the centre was almost completely hidden from view. An image of a gigantic, man-eating creature popped up in my mind, but that, needless to say, didn't seem likely.

The source of the noise turned out to be a small speaker in the back of the left corner of my room. _Ah ha! _I thought. _It's an alarm!_ My satisfaction at discovering the cause of the noise turned to panic. What the heck were they sounding an alarm for? Dread hit me like a brick wall as I thought of my friends. Supposing they'd been found out. What would happen to-

My door burst open and three guards scrambled through the doorway towards me.

'What's going on?' I demanded.

Perhaps they were as freaked out as I was because they all blurted, 'Evacuation,' without hesitating.

I was handcuffed and escorted roughly out of the room and down the corridor. People were screaming and running everywhere while the guards flitted about, trying to gather and then maintain some sort of order. Fat chance.

As a "dangerous refugee", I was taken up top by myself and then locked in the back of a van which was slightly more spacious than the room I'd just come from. As of yet, I wasn't over-the-top panicking. Not on the verge of having a nervous breakdown or screaming with fear, but I as slightly anxious as to where I was going.

From my position inside the van I couldn't see a thing going on outside. I had to rely on my ears to double as my eyes, which provided a really weird mental picture. I could hear the muffled cries and sobs of people being brought up top. Before I'd locked in the van, I'd seen about another 20 vehicles parked around. Where they'd come from was anyone's guess, but I assumes that was where the other refugees were being put now.

Where were we going? We had the alarm been activated? Where were my friends? Were they ok? Questions tumbled around inside my head and I was so preoccupied by them that I didn't notice we were moving until we hit a pothole and I bounced out of my seat. My hands still in cuffs, I couldn't break my fall and landed heavily on my shoulder. I yelped with pain, but was relieved when I could move it with limited discomfort. The van rolled forwards again and that was when I fully realised how much trouble I was in. No one knew where I was or where I was going, including me. I had no way to contact Harry or any one else for that matter. I had been accused of a crime I hadn't even _contemplated_ committing and marked as a dangerous and unpredictable criminal. Things sure weren't looking up.

* * *

Despite my circumstances and the rest I'd had in the isolation room, I managed to sleep for almost the entire journey waking up with a start as the van rolled to a stop. Li had remarked on numerous occasions how about my ability to sleep anywhere, no matter what the situation was, and I had to admit that she was definitely right.

Li. Would I ever get to see her beautiful face again? Had she been put into one of the vans and was just metres away? Had she been left behind at the centre? Had she escaped and joined up with Harry and the MI6 and ASIS officers? Had she been killed? I squashed the last thought down, sure that Li wasn't dead. She was one of the toughest people I knew and there was no way she would have been taken down by this lot. No. The most logical choice was that Li had dazzled the guards with her martial arts and gymnastic prowess, escaping from right under their noses. Yeah. That's what would have happened.

Then there was Alex. Quiet guy that he was, he probably would have just tiptoed off. No offence to Alex, but it was very possible that no one would even notice he was gone. Alex would have just slipped under the radar and melted quietly into the bush. He was probably having a ball, navigating ad surviving in the harsh outback. In a few weeks he'd turn up, blissfully happy and having known exactly where everyone was, but deciding to stay out in the wilderness, just for the hell of it.

And Hex? Most likely he'd have escaped with Amber; knowing him, he wouldn't leave her in potential danger while he was still breathing. They'd have gotten away working as a team, though that would sound unlikely to anyone who had just met them and didn't know who much they loved and cared about each other. Right now, Amber would be arguing with Hex about which way to go, why her way was right and his way was wrong, how they needed to pick up the pace... I shook my head, imagining the scene. The two of them were like an old married couple, though I'd never be able to say that to their faces and live to tell the tale. The word _denial_ always came to mind when I thought of them.

The rear double doors of the van swung open, distracting me from my thoughts. Four guards peered into the gloom and I wondered briefly whether it would be possible to overpower them and make a run for it. I had the element of surprise, but I was handcuffed, unsure whether my friends were captive here as well and had no idea where I was. Time to play the innocent little prisoner.

Climbing out of the van, I blinked in surprise. Although darkness was beginning to fall, an indication of how long we had been driving, I got a good look at my surroundings. It did nothing to boost my already low optimism levels. Red desert sand stretched away for miles. A scraggly clump of bushes or a lone tree occasionally broke up the landscape, but they were few and far between. Hmmm... This wasn't looking good.

'This way,' the guard gripping my right shoulder said. He had a low, gravely voice that reminded me of thunder. I obediently turned and... took a step back, shocked.

The building was two stories high, wide and long. The fact that there was a building in all this nothingness wasn't what had me gaping in astonishment. From a distance the building would have been almost invisible. The outside four walls were painted to replicate the surroundings and, from afar, it would look like you were seeing the scenery, not a painted building. While the disguise wouldn't work at close range, the limited amount of people passing through here meant that this wasn't a problem. I would have bet all my savings, Alex's knife and Hex's palmtop that the roof was painted the same colour as the sand in order to fool any aircraft flying overhead.

Inside, you wouldn't have thought that you were in the middle of the desert, even if someone had yelled it in your face and then taken you outside. There were no windows, but it was as light as day inside; hundreds of light bulbs saw to that. We swept through the first section and all I got to see was a glimpse of sectioned off offices before we powered through a security door and into the back half of the first floor.

We were standing on a balcony that ran to my left and right, all the way to the edges of the building. There was a drop off about 30, 40 metres in front of us and down there was a gym, a pool, mini obstacle course, mats...

It twigged.

Where we had been was a holding point. ASIS had said that something wasn't right, something was up. The refugees _were _being used for some illegal task and this was where they were being trained.


	14. South

**HEX**

If we had to keep walking for much longer, I was going to kill Amber. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Amber- far from it- and I like being with her, but there are times when she just...frustrates me. Like now.

'South.' Amber wasn't exactly looking at me and poking me with a sharp stick, but I had the weird feeling that her words were directed straight at me. 'South,' she repeated with more than a hint of scorn in her voice.

'Are you going somewhere with this?' I asked. She looked at me sideways, glared and then sighed. There was relative silence for a few minutes- if you don't count breaking twigs and freaked out kangaroos bashing their way through scrub as noise-, before Amber started again.

'How long have we been walking for?'

'I haven't exactly got a watch, but I'd say that it's been two, three hours.' It was summer, so the sun set later, but that great ball of fire was sinking further and further downwards. Night was going to fall any time soon and- I hated to admit this even to myself- there was no sign of a town, house, abandoned car or even a chocolate wrapper, let alone the mission base. If only I had my palmtop or a mobile. Heck, I'd even settle for a payphone.

'This is great! Just great!' Amber said. She was trying to sound sarcastic, but her voice wobbled and she just sounded sad and frightened.

'Hey, less of the pessimism. We keep walking south and we'll eventually stumble across-'

'What? The Simpson Desert? Adelaide? The South Pole?' Amber snapped. 'If we go far enough south, we'll end up at the bloody _North_ Pole.' Sniffing, Amber swiped the back of her hand across her eyes. 'This sucks.'

We walked for another half hour or so before I started to catch the pessimism bug.

'Where're the bloody towns around here?' I hissed, staring accusingly at a flock of cockatoos wheeling overhead.

'Hey, less of the pessimism,' Amber drawled in a very bad imitation of my voice. She sounded tired and drained. We were both flagging, but she was worse off. Amber stumbled and grabbed my arm, her nails digging into my skin. Then I realised. How stupid could I get?

I stopped, spun around so I was facing Amber, and looked worriedly at her grey, sweaty face. 'Insulin,' I said. Amber stared at me blankly and I started to panic. 'Amber, insulin. You need to have your insulin.'

'Oh,' she said slowly. 'Right. I do, don't I.'

'Amber!' I hissed, shaking her gently as she made no move to get out her insulin pen.

'Ok, ok. No need to get all pushy.' She flopped to the ground, unzipped her belt pouch and pulled out the insulin pen and blood sugar testing thing. The cockatoos screeched and swooped down low overhead. I stared at them, listening to their squawks and wishing they could tell me where the nearest town was.

'Done,' Amber announced. I helped her stand up, watching her carefully.

'Are you sure you're-'

'OH THANK _GOD_!' Amber's shout made me yelp. Pushing past me, she started hurrying away. I spun around, thinking she'd finally cracked. But then I saw it. There, in the distance, was a house.

* * *

The house belonged to a middle aged lady called Josie Humphrey. If she was shocked to see the two of us- dirty, tired and dead on our feet- arrive on her doorstep, she didn't show it. She immediately agreed to let me use her phone while Amber distracted her. As nice as Josie seemed, I didn't really want to let her in on an MI5 mission.

'Harry! It's Hex.' I sagged tiredly against the wall, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by everything.

Harry had obviously heard something because he yelped, 'Explain.'

'Um...' Before I could figure out a way to explain what had happened, Harry started talking again.

'Alex said there was an alarm and everything went haywire.'

'Alex is with you?' I asked with relief.

'Yeah. Him and Li showed up on quad bike about half an hour ago. So what's with the alarm?'

I'd stopped listening to Harry. If Amber was here with me and Alex was with Li at the base, then that meant...

'Paulo never got out,' I gasped feeling sick. Unfortunately, Amber chose this moment to wander through the door. Her face contorted and she gave a wail, collapsing onto the floor.

'What? What are you talking about?' Harry said.

'If Paulo isn't with you and he's not with me and Amber, then he never got out.'

Harry was still a bit slow on the uptake. 'So? He's probably still locked up.'

'No,' I almost shouted. 'He was in an isolation cell while everyone else was out. He wouldn't have had a chance to get out before...'

'Before what?' Harry's voice was slow and nervous.

'Before the whole bloody place exploded!' I'd slid down the wall and was sitting on the floor, knees pulled up to my chest. Amber had crawled over to me and was now huddled against me, sobbing.

'Alex didn't say anything about an explosion,' Harry said in a thoughtful voice. Either he was the most insensitive man alive, or he still wasn't sure if I was telling the truth.

'Believe me, it exploded. Amber and I just got out.' Amber was making a weird hiccuping noise alongside her sobs, and I hated the fact that nothing I could say would make her feel better.

'Right,' Harry said briskly. 'I'll send someone to fetch you straight away.'

'I don't know where we are, but we're inside a house belonging to a Josie Humphrey and-'

'Don't worry with directions then, I know where you are. We drove past there on the way to the base. Lovely lady. Makes a great cuppa and killer scones.' Harry hung up and I reached up, snapping the phone back onto the hook.

'He's sending someone to get us,' I said in a flat voice, but I was wasting my breath as Amber wasn't listening. Staring at some imaginary object on the wall, she was muttering something under her breath. I leaned closer and made out the words, 'We should have stopped.' My comforting skills are rather inadequate, especially when I'm upset myself, so we sat in silence for the next half hour, until our escort arrived.

* * *

Harry obviously hadn't told Li and Alex about Paulo as they greeted us enthusiastically as we stepped from the car. Our subdued manner and Amber's tear-streaked face stopped them in their tracks. Li's automatic reaction was panic.

'What's happened?' She looked from me to Amber and back to me again, realisation dawning on her face. 'Where's Paulo?' she whispered, almost as if she was afraid of the answer. I was going to try and explain things in a very calm and logical manner, but Amber blew all that out of the water by starting to wail, which got Li thinking the worst and she started to cry as well. Alex stared at me in shock, before sitting down rather abruptly in the dirt. His face was blank, but his eyes showed all the horror and sadness he was feeling. Li's cries were silent, which was somehow worse. She was sitting next to Alex, gripping his arm and shaking as tears streamed down her face. Amber's tear reserves had just about dried up, but she was still really upset, her face distressed. I hated seeing her like this, but had no idea how to comfort her.

Li's sobbing had obviously made Harry aware of our presence. He sauntered out of the house, blue eyes squinting at us.

'Nice to have you two back with us,' he called. Alex threw a poisonous glare over his shoulder as Li collapsed against his side.

'Good choice of words,' he muttered.

Harry reached us and looked around at our faces, obviously puzzled. 'Why all the unhappy faces?'

'Did you listen to a word I said on the phone?' I hissed.

'Um... I remember something about an explosion and you and Amber needing a lift. Then you tried to convince me that Paulo had been left in there and blown up, though that's a bit strange as his dot was moving, and then-'

'What dot?' We all swivelled our heads in Harry's direction.

'The dot on the tracker system. Paulo's is green, Li's is red, Amber's is blue-'

'Yeah, yeah, that's great,' Alex interrupted. 'But what do you mean?'

'We had tracers fitted in your shoes and trial ones under your skin, bit like a microchip, although we can get it out without too much hassle. Paulo's dot is a fair way away, but our tracking system is so advanced it can keep a hold of him even at that distance.' Harry seemed unaware that we had stopped listening somewhere after this point, because he kept babbling on for a bit longer. He seemed very proud of his superior tracking system and wanted us to know all about it. The four of us shared a look of relief before racing past Harry and into the house.

The lounge room had just about been taken over with various pieces of equipment. I made a mental note to have a look at it all later, but for now our attention was completely taken by the huge screen covering just about the entire back wall. Four dots- one red, one blue, one yellow and one orange- were clustered together in one corner of the screen with a lone green dot pulsing softly in the far corner.

'He's ok,' breathed Li with obvious relief. Harry's word hadn't been enough for her, but now that she had seen Paulo's tracer for herself, she was satisfied. Amber gave a sniff and whipped a handkerchief out of her pocket, dabbing at her eyes.

'I'll kill him for turning me into an emotional wreck,' she said with a smile.

'What the hell is he doing all the way over there?' Alex muttered, gazing at the green dot in wonder.

I shrugged. 'Who knows what goes on in the mind of that guy.'

We stood there for about five minutes, just watching the general chaos that flittered in and out of the lounge room. Just when I was about to slip quietly away and reclaim my palmtop off the tech guys, there was an excited shout from the far corner of the room.

'Sir! Sir! Paulo's on the phone.'


	15. You All Look Like Crap

**ALEX**

'Sir! Sir! Paulo's on the phone.' One of the tech guys was waving a hand excitedly, the other hand jammed against the headphones, determined not to miss a word. An official looking man that I assumed to be head of the operation waded through the sea of people and plonked into a chair next to the excited techie, taking up the second set of headphones. It was a nerve-wracking five minutes as every one was silent, watching the two of them nod every now and then and occasionally mutter some words back. When they did finish, the official guy stalked out of the lounge room. Li grabbed my arm.

'What's going on?' she hissed.

I winced and answered, 'No idea. We should go ask Harry.'

Slipping out of the chaos and dragging Hex and Amber with us, we began the annoying search for our boss. The most likely places we checked first. Not in the kitchen, not in his room, not in one of the vans. That left us with rather limited options.

'Where is he?' demanded Amber. She had her annoyed face on and I wisely took a step away, as did Hex and Li. If Amber noticed our quick retreat, she didn't say anything. 'He was just- Oh, _finally_.'

Harry wandered towards us, coming from the direction of a smaller building set next to the main house. He had a thoughtful expression on his face and didn't seem to register our presence. I snuck a quick glance at my friends, who'd all seemed to deflate on sighting of Harry. Amber looked dead on her feet, swaying slightly with her hand clamped firmly on Hex's arm so she didn't fall over. Li was pale and anxious still, twitching every now and then. I still think she wasn't quite sure whether to believe technology or not. Hex had the oddest expression on his face. Well, not exactly odd, more like...misplaced. That expression usually only made an appearance when Amber was in trouble, but she was fine -more or less- and standing right next to him. I didn't have time to dwell over it any longer because Harry finally looked up and caught sight of us.

'Hey!' he called as he hurried over. We didn't answer, just smiled with varying degrees of sincerity and waited for him to reach us. 'You all look like crap,' he added when he had finally joined us.

'Well we were just told that Paulo was dead, then find out he's actually not- a fact that you knew and decided not to tell us,' snapped Li, glaring at Harry. He took a step back, regarding Li with caution.

'Yes, well...' Harry trailed off and had the decency to look very guilty. He looked at each if us before saying softly, almost as if he was afraid of triggering another bought of agro from Li, 'Sorry, but I really have to go. We're deciding a few things and they need my help.' He scuttled away, throwing worried glances over his shoulder until he reached the house.

With him gone, my attention turned back to Hex's strange expression.

'What's wrong?' I asked him in a low voice.

He looked up at me and at first I thought he wasn't going to answer, but then he said, 'I shot someone.' His voice sounded disbelieving, like he still hadn't completely absorbed the fact.

Li's reaction probably wasn't the most tactful. 'You _what_?!'

Flinching, Hex mumbled, 'It was just after the alarm started. I went back to get my mobile and phone Harry, when this guy came into my office. He had a gun and was training it at me, but then a second guy came in. The first guy turned around and I shot him in the shoulder. He shot the second man in the chest.'

'Was that just before I came in?' Amber asked.

Hex nodded. 'The second one was definitely dead; the bullet hit him right in his heart. But the one I shot...' He sat down rather abruptly, pulled his knees up to his chest and ran a hand through his hair. 'I should have checked. What if he wasn't dead? Then I left him to be blown up.'

Because she'd still been holding onto Hex's arm, Amber had been dragged down with him. Now she let go and instead put her arm around Hex's shoulders.

'He was going to shoot you. You did it in self-defence, not cold blood,' she said.

Hex just groaned and lent forward until his head was resting on his knees.

Harry wandered out of the house, walking beside a tall guy. They were talking in low voices and stopped when they came closer to us.

'What happened?' Harry demanded, taking in the four of us huddled on the ground.

'Nothing,' Hex said quickly, sitting up straight. He shot us all warning looks as we stood up. Right. He obviously didn't want us to say anything.

'Good,' Harry said, obviously relieved. 'Thought I'd had more officers down.'

I looked sharply at Harry. 'More officers down?'

'Yeah,' he sighed. 'One of the MI6 officers who'd been put in as a guard was shot in the shoulder. He was lucky to get out before the whole place went up.'

Hex's head snapped up. 'Shoulder? Did he see who shot him.'

'Yes,' answered Harry slowly, slightly uneasy at the amount of interest Hex was showing. 'Another guard. Brown hair, brown eyes. Tall. The officer who was shot- Mark- was the one who blew your cover. He was a bit vague about it but someone overheard a call he made to us. He was being chased and went into this other guard's- the one who shot him- office. The man who was chasing him appeared in the doorway, Mark turned, was shot and he shot the guard who was running after him on reflex. He passed out for a bit, but woke up to see two people running out the office door. There was some secret fire escape thing near him and he made it out with seconds to spare.'

Harry's description was slightly confusing, but to Hex it made perfect sense.

'So the officer, Mark, is ok?' Hex asked eagerly.

'Yeah. Exhausted and reconsidering staying with the Secret Service, but ok. The bullet was removed and he's been flown out.' Harry gave Hex a strange look. 'Why the interest.'

'I shot him,' Hex explained. 'When he came into the room, I thought my cover was blown. I waited for him to turn and shot him in the shoulder.' A look of immeasurable relief came across Hex's face. 'I didn't kill him, then.'

Harry looked confused for a moment, before he decided to just nod. 'No,' he said, smiling. The smile suddenly disappeared and he went all serious, not an emotion you would normally associate with Harry. 'But, and this goes for all of you, if you want to continue working with us, you are going to have to shoot someone- with the intention of killing them- at one time or another. Understood?'

We nodded sombrely.

'Good.' The smile reappeared. 'Now, I want you all to get ready because we're packing up.'

'What? Why?' Li said.

'Paulo's signal is coming from just inside the Northern Territory. We're relocating this operation closer to him, just in case things go pear shaped.'

'When are we leaving?' Hex asked. I felt relived to have him back to normal.

'As soon as everything's ready. Sooner the better, though.' Harry started to walk back to the house, the tall guy following. 'Oh,' he called, pausing mid-step and spinning back to look at us again. 'Good job, by the way.'

'Nice to have the boss' approval,' muttered Amber, rolling her eyes.

Hex grinned at her. 'Wonder what he'll say if we actually completed a mission without some diaster?'

'Same thing,' Li put in. 'But let's just remember that this mission ain't over yet. Paulo's still in there.'

We nodded.

'We won't forget, Li,' I reassured her.

Amber, who was also looking a bit more like her usual self, remarked, 'Paulo? Who's Paulo?' and got a poisonous look from Li. 'Only joking,' Amber laughed.

'Come on,' I sighed. 'We better go help.'

* * *

The new mission base was another house, although this time we were right on the edge of nothing. Red sand stretched far out in front of us. Squinting against the glare, I wondered how we were going to find Paulo and wherever he was being held amongst all that emptiness. It was a daunting prospect. Li came up beside me and stared at the sand in what could only be horror.

'He'll be fine,' I said, knowing what, or rather _who_, she was thinking about.

She looked at me. 'You always keep your word, right Alex?'

I nodded, feeling slight déjà vu. 'Always.'


	16. Frustration

**A/N Fairly short chapter again. The next one will either be of short or medium length and the last chapter should be fairly short. There will be no action in the last chapter, but it will form the basis for one of my plot points in my next fic which will be set after this one. **

**PAULO**

The fact that I was locked up, once again, while almost everyone else was free to wander about seemed _very_ unfair to me. at least time I wasn't under lock and key because of supposedly killing someone; the other refugees from the original centre were also in similar conditions. My guess was that a select amount of refugees would be transported here from other centres when they had proved they were trustworthy. Unfortunately for them and rather fortunately for me, the evacuation had resulted in about 50 or 60 of us being brought here before we were ready. That number was painfully small considering how many people had been in the centre to start with and I couldn't help but accept the fact that the majority of others would have been killed. _As long as my friends are ok, then it's fine_, I thought and immediately felt terrible. Every refugee in that centre had been lied to and cheated out of any sort of a future. True, the majority of them wouldn't have had much in their home countries but they, as future terrorists if my theory was correct, had nothing at all now.

Clever cookie Hex had given me a small wooden charm on a shoe string before he left for the training base over a month ago. Hidden in the wood was a small microphone and speaker. As long as I stuck the wood about one centimetre from my mouth, I could contact Base. For receiving, I pressed the charm to my ear. I wasn't sure if Hex had given one of these prototypes to Li or Amber, though I guessed he hadn't because if there were any glitches in the devise they would never have let it go. Ever.

I'd used the little charm to talk to two guys- one a techie and the other some big wig MI6 guy- at Base a few hours before and since then I'd been twiddling my thumbs and watching the paint flake off the wall. Normally I'd have been quite happy with the slow, unhurried pace but for some reason I found it frustrating.

Another hour passed, or was it two? Time held no meaning here; even if I had a watch every second would have melted into the next. I was by myself again and I wished for company, a total stranger even.

A sharp pain in the back of my hand made me wince. I glanced at the skin, wondering if I had imagined it. But no, there it was again. I gasped and clutched at my hand, wishing the pain away and suddenly it wasn't there. Flexing my fingers, I waited for another flash of pain and felt nothing. _What the hell?_ I thought. The bench I was sitting on was made of metal with a thin cushion placed on the top of it. I gingerly tapped my hand on the edge of the bench. Nothing. I whacked a bit harder and then harder still, but no more agonising twinge; my hand just ached from banging it against metal.

Maybe I would have pondered the mysterious pain for a bit longer but there was a sudden hissing, like air had been released from a tyre, and I started to feel woozy. And panicky. Through the sudden haze that filtered over my eyes, I gripped the charm, stuck it as close to my lips as possible and summoned my last reserves of energy to murmur, 'I want out.' Then my hand dropped from my face and I collapsed on the bench, not even trying to fight the oncoming black any longer. At least I didn't have to worry about time when unconsciousness.

* * *

Screaming, gun shots and breaking glass where the melodious sounds that I awoke to. I rolled over, unfortunately ending up on the floor due to the hideously narrow bench, and winced as I tried to move. A pounding headache, aches all along my back and a bruised hip where I'd hit the concrete floor didn't exactly make me embrace the morning. Or whatever time it was; no windows and no watch resulted in me being completely oblivious to how long I'd be out for.

Struggling to my feet, I leant against the wall and tried to work out what was going on. The screams still echoed around the whole building, but at least the gun shots and smashing glass had stopped. There was the sound of running outside my door, followed by what I imagined had to be a small herd of cattle considering the bellowing and crashing was so loud.

My vision swam as my door was kicked open and I crashed to the floor. I blacked out for a second, but when I came to my friends were standing half in the doorway, staring at me with horror.

'Hey, guys,' I said weakly, struggling to my feet again. 'Nice of you to drop in.'

'Paulo!' Li burst into tears and I looked worriedly from her to Alex, Hex and Amber. Before they could answer, Li cannoned into my side, almost knocking me off my feet again. She was still sobbing as she threw her arms around me.

'Y-you're ok?' she hiccuped.

I hugged her back. 'Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?'

Without pulling away, Li said, her voice slightly muffled, 'Your dot stopped flashing.'

'My dot?'

'Harry had trackers fitted under our skin. They stop pulsing when- when the person they're fitted on stops living.'

I gently pushed Li away from me slightly and looked down at her. 'Are these trackers under the skin on the back of our hands?'

Li nodded.

'Well, I don't know if Harry will be too happy about this, but his tracker malfunctioned. I got this really bad pain in my hand and, well, it must have been the tracer committing suicide.'

Amber, Alex and Hex had joined us. Amber gently punched my arm.

'What was that for?' I asked, clutching my arm and staggering in mock pain, though grinning at the same time.

Amber grinned back, but her eyes were upset. 'You died twice, you moron.'

I must have looked confused because Hex added, 'She promised to kill you for turning her into an emotional wreck.'

'Ah... But how did I die twice? The second time I get but...'

'Explanations later,' Li said firmly. 'MI5, ASIS and MI6 are swarming all over here.' We moved towards the door as Alex added, 'He wasn't really happy about us coming in here. He thought he'd already lost one of his officers- you- so the prospect of losing four more made him a bit edgy.'

'But we worked him down.' Amber smiled and poked her head out into the hallway, looking left and right, checking for danger.

'Well, not so much "worked him down" as snuck off when he wasn't looking,' Hex admitted, looking pointedly at Li.

She shrugged. 'We'll be back before he even knows we're gone.'

In single file we trotted down the hallway, making our way towards the bridge over the training area. The building was almost empty and we made a _huge_ mistake. We relaxed. Together and complete once more, we started to stop noticing our surroundings. Li was walking beside me and I grasped her hand, smiling down at her. She smiled back and gave my hand a squeeze. That was when he appeared at the opposite end of the bridge. The short, square-built guy who had ordered the horrific death of that poor girl back in the other building. Hex's eyes widened and Alex swore.

'Don,' Hex murmured and Alex nodded his agreement.

Almost as if hearing his name, Don's head shot up and his eyes narrowed as he saw the five of us. Recognition dawned on his face as his eyes travelled to each of our faces.

'You!' he growled. By "you", I guessed he meant all of us, but I for one wasn't going to hang around and find out.

'Run!' shrieked Amber. She spun around and pounded back up the stairs, the four of us hot on her heels. From behind us, Don gave a shout and then we were being chased.


	17. Think You're Safe?

**LI**

'Don't let them escape!' roared Don somewhere behind us. There were answering shouts from all directions. This wasn't good; we were being surrounded. Paulo, in the lead, sped up. I was amazed that he was able to keep going, considering everything he'd been through.

'We need wheels,' Hex announced.

'We need a way out first, dumb ass,' Amber said, rolling her eyes.

'State the obvious, why don't you.'

I grinned inwardly; when were the two of them going to wake up and smell the coffee? God, it was frustrating watching them dance around each other, trading insults and sarcastic comments, all the while completely blind to each other. And Hex was meant to be good at seeing things other people didn't.

'A window!' Amber gasped, darting left down a corridor. We backtracked and hared after her.

'Are we all going to be able to fit through there?' Paulo asked, looking doubtfully from the window to himself, Alex and Hex.

'If not, Li and Amber can get through, grab a car or something and wait while we get out another way,' Alex decided.

'I don't know how to hotwire-' Amber began.

'I do,' I said, cutting Amber off. 'Paulo showed me. Fairly simple really.'

There was a snort of disbelief from Paulo's direction as I said that last sentence.

'You should have seen her first fifty attempts. Such unladylike language.'

I ignored him and took my shoes off, knotting the laces together and slinging both boots around my neck. Hex and Paulo fed me through the window feet first. When I was hanging out the window with just my hands gripping the windowsill, I dug my toes into the bricks and turned my head slightly to look down, trying to find the best way to the bottom. Thankfully the brickwork was set out of the mortar, so I had a whole set of little two centimetre ledges all the way down.

As I started to climb, I heard Amber say, 'There is no way I'm going to able to climb down there.'

'It's ok,' I called up using the quietest voice possible that would still be audible to my friends. 'You guys find another way. I'll grab a car.'

Four voices responded with, 'Ok. Good luck,' before they disappeared and I was alone.

As usual, when I was climbing everything else just faded into the background. I forgot about the danger, I forgot that we were being chased, I forgot about the urgency of our situation.

Wen I reached the bottom and stood on the sandy earth, everything snapped back into focus. I scolded myself silently as I sidled along the edge of the building.

'Silly Li. You're meant to be finding a car not having a- WOAH!'

Just before I stepped around the side of the building, a battered jeep rocketed past, nearly collecting my head. I jumped back, then gave a shout as I recognised the people in the jeep.

'Oi! Aren't you forgetting something?!' I bawled.

Amber's head swivelled in my direction. She leaned forward and tapped Paulo's shoulder and the jeep swung around, coming back towards me.

Waiting until they were right beside me, I leapt to the right, landing on Hex as I fell into the jeep.

'Ta da!' I cried as Hex pushed me off and rubbed his shoulder.

'Nice of you to join us, Li,' Amber remarked dryly. 'What happened to you finding a car?'

I shrugged, wriggling into a more comfortable position on the bench seat. 'You guys beat me to it.'

'Did you go to sleep on that wall?' Hex gripped thin air and shut his eyes, snoring loudly.

'What if I did?' I said, playing along. 'It's night time; who could blame me?'

'You'd hardly know it was night with all those spotlights on,' Alex said, pointing behind us at the building.

'I thought they wanted to stay hidden,' Hex added. 'Maybe it's reverse psychology.'

Amber scoffed. 'So they light up the entire area like a Christmas tree and expect people to go, "Hmmm... If there's so many lights on there _can't_ be something evil and top secret going on. If it was all dark and gloomy then that'd be a different story, but it's all lit up. I think I'll just be on my merry way." Right.' Amber rolled her eyes and turned back around to look at the building once more. 'Holy cripes!' she yelped.

'What?!' Alex, Hex and I spun around to find three more jeeps hot on our trail. I could just make out Don's square shape in the passenger seat of the front jeep.

'This is bad,' Amber muttered.

'No, no, no,' Hex disagreed. 'This is great. I could think of nothing I'd rather do then get chased by Cubeman and his dominions.'

'Hex.'

'Yes?'

'Shut up.'

Cubeman- as Hex had so lovingly dubbed Don- was gaining on us.

'Couple of questions,' I said, putting my hand in the air.

'Fire away,' Hex said.

'One: why did you pick such an old jeep? Two: does anyone actually know where we're going?'

Hex pointed at Paulo. 'I think Paulo would like to answer those questions, wouldn't you, Paulo?'

'What?' Paulo spun the wheel and we narrowly missed a pile of rocks.

'Why such an old jeep and where the hell are we going?' Hex said.

'Old jeep because it was the only one I could get at without going past guards and we're going away from them.'

'By "them" I assume you mean the people who are chasing us,' I asked, just for clarification. I spun around and snuck a quick glance at the jeeps. 'The people who are gaining on us.' Don seemed to be shouting at someone and then two men stood up in the open back of the jeep and trained their guns on us. 'The people who are about to start shooting at us.'

'What?' Amber croaked, just as the first spray of bullets pinged into the car. We all flattened ourselves down while Paulo slid down in the driver's seat as much as possible so he'd be protected a bit better but still able to see where he was going.

'Floor it!' Alex yelled.

'It's floored!' Paulo snapped back.

Over the yelling and banging and pinging I heard a new sound.

_Whumph, whumph, whumph, whumph._

'Ah... Anyone else hear that?' I asked.

'Hear what?' Amber turned her head while still staying low down, caught sight of something above us and yelped, her eyes the size of tennis racquets. 'Helicopter.'

I craned my head to look up and saw the huge black shape hovering near us. _This is it_, I thought. _We're goners now_.

Surprisingly, the heli twisted away from us and swooped down near the jeeps. There was the _rattatat rattatat_ of machine gun fire and two of the jeeps swerved off course while the third coasted to a stop, the men inside immediately spilling out and throwing themselves on the ground in surrender. I shared a look of disbelief with Hex.

'I guess the heli is from Base,' he said. I nodded and tried to calm my heart and push it back down out of my throat.

Paulo brought the jeep to a halt and we all sat in stunned silence for a moment or two.

'We're safe!' Alex suddenly shouted. That seemed to wake us up a bit. We all started grinning stupidly at each other but the grins fell from our faces as Harry's voice, amplified by a megaphone, came from above.

'You five are in _so_ much trouble when you get back to Base. Safe? Ha! You'll wish they _had_ caught you.'


	18. Breakdown

**A/N This chapter's ending part probably won't make sense unless you've read chapter nine of Death's Paw.**

**AMBER**

It was time for my breakdown. I'd just finished my dinner and had put my dirty dishes in the tray when I started to shake uncontrollably. Tears welled up in my eyes and I felt like someone had clamped an iron bar around my chest. Gasping for breath, I stumbled out of the mess tent and into the bush. Not really knowing where I was going, just wanting to get away, I crashed through the bush, refusing to give into the tears until I was safely seated somewhere. A small rocky outcrop on the edge of the patch of scrub seemed promising.

I scrambled up the boulders, finally reaching the top and settling myself down, leaning back so I was sitting against the rock. Looking out across the desert, I gave into the tears and cried.

Memories flashed through my mind: Mei bashing Keisha and me sitting helpless in the corner, only able to watch, powerless to stop her; the girl begging to be spared from the lionesses and then her screams as they killed her; Paulo's face as he was taken into the isolation cell; Keisha's tiny body, so frail and delicate, lying in a pool of blood; the blood coming from Hex's office; the explosion; Hex telling Harry that Paulo hadn't made it out, finding out Paulo was alive and then apparently losing him again. Then came the flashbacks, or rather _flashback_, of our last mission: trapped in a warehouse, with Tanya dead next to me, watching as the flames crept higher. I sobbed until my eyes dried up and then I sat back and stared out across the horizon, hiccuping every now and then. Could I continue doing this? I couldn't keep going to pieces after every mission. The prospect of taking over the business back in America looked rosy, but I knew that I wouldn't be happy.

Happy. The thought made me smile. _Oh yeah, Amber. You're so happy. Sitting by yourself on a pile of rocks in the middle of Australia, crying your eyes out. Happy, hey?_

My thoughts returned to my future. Did I really want to stay in the Secret Service? Was it time for me and my friends to part ways? That prospect completely terrified me; even though Alpha Force had taken a back seat to our duties with MI5, we were still together, working as a team. To leave all that behind would mean leaving a piece of me behind as well.

'There you are.'

Hex's voice startled me. I jumped and quickly wiped my eyes, not answering because I knew my voice would be anything but steady.

Hex sat down next to me, his green eyes worried. 'Hey,' he said softly. 'You alright?'

I nodded. 'Yeah, just... I guess everything just got to me. I'm fine now.'

Hex didn't look satisfied by my answer. '"Everything's got to you"? What do you mean by "everything"?'

'Oh, just stuff in general. I was thinking about our missions and the future, yadda ya.' I sighed. 'I don't know what to do any more. On one hand, I can stay in London and keep working with MI5. On the other hand, I can go back to America and take over the company.'

The look of slight panic that crossed Hex's face for a split second made me smile inwardly. 'But you don't want to go back and manage a boring old company, do you? Why do that when you can face danger and deception?'

'Yeah. I don't really want to go back.'

'So don't then. I doubt Li would let you leave anyway.'

I laughed. 'She'd kidnap me and lock me in a cupboard.' I paused and looked at the sun setting over the desert. Red, oranges and pinks turned the sky into a beautiful display. 'I love working with the Secret Service but...sometimes it just gets a bit much, you know what I mean?'

'Yeah. Like you think someone's dead and you realise you haven't told them something really important and you'd give anything to tell them that really important thing. Then it turns out they're ok and you don't end up telling them anyway.'

'Yeah,' I answered very slowly, still trying to decipher what Hex had just said. I looked sideways to find Hex looking at me with an odd expression on his face. 'What?'

He looked away, staring out across the desert. 'I was thinking about our last mission the other day. With _Equal Rights_ and such.'

I shuddered. 'That mission almost made me hand in my resignation. Lilia was a nasty piece of work wasn't she?'

Hex nodded his agreement, then cleared his throat. 'You remember it pretty clearly then?'

'Sure thing. I still have flashbacks sometimes,' I admitted.

There was a slight pause as Hex hesitated. He tapped his fingers against the rock, a look of concentration on his face. 'You- you remember when we were tailing Lilia?'

I thought back, bringing up the relevant memory and replaying it in my head. We were in Hex's titchy car following Lilia to a warehouse lot and then- I gulped, wondering if I was right about where this conversation was headed. 'Yeah, I remember.'

There was another pause before, 'Ducking was an option.'

Having absolutely no idea what I was supposed to say, Li's appearance at the bottom of the rock pile was almost a relief.

'Oi, you two!' she bawled. 'We're heading home. Move it. You're holding everyone up.'

Hex took the most direct route, half-climbing, half-sliding, down the face of the boulder pile. I made a slower descent, still puzzling over that conversation and trying to ignore my churning stomach.

As I caught up with Li, she gave me a weird look. 'You alright? You look a bit... funny.'

'I'm fine.'

I frowned, trailing after Li towards the base. What the hell had just happened?

**That's it for Price of Freedom. Sky's The Limit is my new Alpha Force fic and it's set after this one. Sky's The Limit will most likely be my last AF fic, at least for a while, as I have an idea for a fic in another category. I'll still be reading and reviewing AF fics and will try and generate an idea or two for AF fics later on. Sky's The Limit is going to be a fairly long fic- at least in length of chapters if not in chapter number- most likely and it will tie up some events that happened in Death's Paw and Price of Freedom, particularly Amber and Hex's relationship. It's going to be written in first person- Amber's POV- throughout the entire thing and I really hope it works. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this fic and I hoped you enjoyed it! **

**Apologies to anyone who is waiting for an update for The Assassin's Touch. I haven't exactly got writer's block with it, but more of a plot block. I'm still trying to work out a few plot points and come up with an idea of where I'm heading with it before I write the next chapter. Give me a week or two and I should (finger's crossed) have it up. **


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